Vespertine
by Artificial Flavoring
Summary: Dib and Tak have a plan to destroy each others races. Who will break the bargain and is there anything Tak loves more then being an Invader? Content warning.
1. Exposure

**Exposure **

**Part One**

Tak had looked stunning, jaw dropping, a regular meal in heels. She was wrapped so tightly in a black dress that she must have sewn herself into it. Seriously. Her projection has been so provocative that even the subtle twist of her hips entering the vehicle had been enough to rob Dib of his normal level-headedness and leave him fighting for breath. The only rational thought in his head told him to stop staring at the low-cut fissure that dipped between Taks breasts.

Dib swallowed hard and concentrated on keeping the blood in his head as he greeted his date, "have you thought about were you wanted to go?"

"Not really," she answered in her characteristic fake accent. She would later admit to Dib that she only did it to make her sound more exotic. Yes, it was outrageous and far from convincing, but Dib had to acknowledge that it did make her that much more enticing.

Tak crossed her legs, the hem of her dress threatened to burst as is shimmied up her thighs. She casually gave the material a tug in a weak attempt to recover herself. It was no good. She was shrink wrapped.

Dib white knuckled the steering wheel, "you look wonderful." He spat the complement like a curse. As if saying it caused him physical anguish.

"Thanks?" Tak had picked up on the reluctance in his voice.

"No really, but you always look exceptional." He turned to look her in the eye, hoping to give some extra truth to his statement.

Tak gave her driver a once over. He was so skinny, even for her standards. The emaciated boy couldn't have weighed more then a hundred and twenty pounds even with those metal holes riddling his body. Those metal spiraled outlets allowed him to input with his computer, connecting him to the entire town, giving him the ultimate power over water, generators, and people like him. The biggest outlet was one at the base of his neck that directly linked his brainstem to the main hard drive of his computer. This was one reason he had to remain overly stoic all the time. To loose control of his emotions in an interconnected situation could lead to disastrous consequences. The slightest increase of breath, heartbeat, or brain activity would be picked up on by the sensitive instruments of the computer and could potentially cause power outages, meltdowns, and death. The discombobulating of his internal wiring could certainly destroy the circuitry of the city and all who lived in it.

Tak realized with mild shock that this was the first time she had ever seen him outside his lab. And why should he leave? He had everything there, control especially. Some days he would become so drunk on power that he would forget to eat or sleep. Just hang there half-conscious, preparing for the end, decoding and creating streams of binary that could cripple even the most sophisticated of firewalls within a series of seconds.

He was very secretive.

Because he was very smart. Everyone wanted to know the whereabouts of his late father's laboratory. Including Tak, his only admitted friend, who frequented his own personal lab, but was kept in the dark about his fathers', A.K.A. the largest stronghold of nuclear weapons and devastating chemical arsenals on the face of any planet. Dib once eluded to the sheer number of weaponry located at the base saying, "if something were to go wrong, if there were to be a melt down. Half the planet would go down with me. The rest would die in a nuclear ice age, if they survived long enough in the radiation."

Tak had all but salivated and then bit her lip until it bled. Anything to make her interest in the subject appear as minimal as possible. She never wanted to be too overt about pressing for information. Most of the time she just let comments like that one slide. She didn't want suspicions to be raised.

"How about the restaurant on the eastside, the new one. I hear it's getting great review." Dib suggested suddenly.

"You don't read the newspaper, nor do you watch television. Did you snoop in the system again?"

Dib smirked. The blatant look of disregard for what was obviously illegal on his face made mischief seem playfully innocent, "so?"

Tak gave him her coyest smile. Her hand moving to Dib's knee, "naughty…" she dragged out the word like the stoke of her hand.

"Nngh…" Dib twisted the wheel a bit too sharply driving over a curb. "Shit," he straightened himself out, switch into reverse and then rammed into a pedestrian.

The man bounced off the trunk and landed with a thump on the side of the street.

Dib gave Tak a horrified look. Tak without missing a beat advised him, "just drive."

"Right," Dib who had forgotten to switch back to drive, drove over the poor person a second time. "SHIT!" he shouted the expletive in the direction of Tak who just laughed. Finally he peeled out, leaving the unconscious victim behind him in a cloud of dust and burnt rubber.

"God I hate driving," it was true. The only reason he had opted for what he considered an outdated form of transportation was to hopefully add an extra romantic element to his endeavor. But killing someone had just kind of, well killed the mood.

"Well, that was eventful," Tak's hand remained strong and unmoved from its spot, nestled nearly at the crook that created the core of his body.

"Does that restaurant still sound good?"

"You know I don't eat."

"How about the ambience," Dib was visibly shaking and looking over his shoulder, "does that appeal to you?"

"Definitely, that and the company."

Dibs heartbeat sounded like an infinite line of landmines being detonated, each one more exhilarating and painful then the last. He could only compare this feeling to the first time that needle-like wire had entered his vein. It was liberating as fucking, and Dib had lost his innocence to power. He had been baptized in smoking circuits and calculating metal. Dib had been penetrated by the one thing he considered to be a deity. In a sense Dib had lost his virginity to god. This is what that was like, fucking god.

Dib pulled into the parking lot, coming to a stop under a streetlamp. The dim lighting gave Tak a sinister glow that suited her better then that translucent angelic one she had chosen to give her avatar.

Dib had been waiting for an opportunity like this, a chance to show Tak how gentlemanly he could be. What human chivalry might have been like it hadn't expired long ago. His advances had never worked. Taks resolve was like a mountain, nearly impervious to erosion. Only his best lines and the most endearing of tenacity could chip tortuously away at that giant reserve of excuses, until Tak had no more to use. But Dib knew something else had happened. What had been the proverbial straw? After 11 years for her to just accept a dinner invite seemed a bit odd. But with that ungloved hand so dangerously close to his crotch, he had neglected to breathe let alone deeply consider his partners ulterior motives.

"Shall we?" Dib removed himself stiffly from the vehicle, finding it hard to move with ice in his veins. He opened the door for Tak.

"Thanks." Tak slinked out of the car.

Her hair reflected red, but was really purple and cut to a dramatic a-line. Her eyes were so heavy with make-up that she could barely keep them open. It was either a very sleepy or sensual half-lidded gaze she gave Dib. Did she know what she was doing to him? Yes, she could almost see his stomach twisting itself into a Celtic knot and adored the feeling. She had the world's most powerful man at her feet like an abused puppy, waiting desperate for any scrap of affection she threw his way.

She flicked her wrist out, "well, aren't you going to hold my hand?"

Dib cupped it gingerly, taking precautions not to make eye contact. Tak using Irken persuasion and the ancient art of Kung Fu was able to interlock the digits before Dib could protest. As if he would.

Instead he squeezed it, the way Frodo gripped the ring all the way to Mordor, all the way to the door.

The restaurant was elegant enough, in the 1940s sense. Dib hadn't known the place was themed or he might have decided on something a little less gouty. Something without high ceilings and chandeliers, silk tablecloths, or candlelight, something with a little less space, places were he could feel safe, close. Dib was beginning to think he was agoraphobic.

The hostess sat them quickly, no one could afford to go to these sorts of places anymore and a spot was nearly always guaranteed even without a reservation.

The waiter was eager to serve and began pestering them for an order as soon as they took their seats.

"Alright you two welcome to the Fitzgerald. I'm Al I'll be your server tonight. If you need anything just feel free to ask. Can I start you out with something to drink?" This Al kid was massive but that was no surprise.

"Yeah, I'd love a Jack and coke."

Dib stared at Tak for the second time that night with a horrified expression. She couldn't drink it and he just didn't drink. He didn't see the point of inebriation, thought it was stupid and useless, not to mention a monumental waste of money. The sly look in Taks' turquoise eyes revealed her intentions. In order to maintain a look of normalcy someone was going to have to drink the cocktail. Three guesses as to who.

Dib gave Tak the foulest glare he could muster, "I'll take one too."

It was Taks turned to be taken off guard, "um, do you think you could tell us about the specials?"

"Yes, there's chicken, lots of chicken. CHICKENS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS!!"

"What's good tonight?"

"Well, the chicken breassssssssst." Al leaned precariously over Dib, making the latter party uncomfortable. "Chicken tighsssssssssss." He was purposefully doing this wasn't he? Just to make Dib fidget. His eyes reflexively flickered over Tak's unsuspecting frame.

"Are they any good?" Tak was either completely unaware of the real situation or was enjoying watching Dib squirm.

"Oh, yes. Delicious." The way he enunciated it, thrusting himself over the table to loom over Tak made Dib furious. "So tender and juicy."

"Okay, really?" Dib threw the words as forcefully as he could. "I'll just take some Clam Chowder."

"Mmm, chowder. So white and creamy…" Al's faced twisted into confusion. "Are you gay?"

"CLAM CHOWDER!"

"I'd like some chicken, actually." Tak smiled kindly at Al. Dib was going to eat that as well.

"Excellent." Al put on a helmet and a full suit of armor, equipped himself with a giant electric spear, cried, "For PATRICK," and dashed off.

You see there was reason for this. This far in the future animals who had been treated with steroids and other such chemicals in hopes of plumbing them had grown to epic sizes. Out weighting and out smarting many of the servers at restaurants that served the genetically enhance poultry. A sort of arms race between man and chicken had been the outcome. 'Patrick' must have been one of the many casualties of the absurd war. Dib really didn't want to eat the chicken, the idea of a farm animal inducing a 'roid rage was way less then appetizing.

"So, now what's new?" Another waiter dropped the drinks down between Tak and Dib.

"Nothing really. Any news from your front?" Dib grasped the glass with both hands and bringing it to his lips sucked it like a bottle. Before he realized the whole drink was gone. He was turning into a regular professional alcoholic.

"I haven't heard from the tallest, I doubt they expect anything if that's what you want to know."

"Good, good. Do you really think this will work?" Dib's face was still a bit contorted from the booze he had just chugged.

"I have no reason to believe otherwise. Have the humans noticed the changes?" Tak leaned close to Dib.

"Please, humans never notice anything."

Tak and Dib had a pact that they would help each other with what they both most wanted. The destruction of their own races. Tak had return to irk empty handed nearly 12 years ago. She had asked for mercy, for a second chance to prove herself. Instead The Tallest had publically humiliated her, revoked her title as an invader and banished her permanently from her home. The once she had once loyally served. She had since refocused the passion she had for protecting the planet into annihilating it. Dib, similarly, had always been ridiculed and seen as an outcast. He had never fit in with these human. He had never connected to one the way he had so easily with his computer. And in his opinion there was no need to. What would he get out of them, what did they have to offer him? Tak was the only 'living' thing he had ever held other then platonic feelings for. Humans at this point were just a nuisance. Tak and Dib figured they could go live on a far away planet, somewhere in the Northern galaxies where all species were welcomed.

"We'll lead the Armada to my father's lab then…"

"You do realize you have still neglected to tell me its whereabouts." Tak shoved the second drink into Dib's hands.

"Oh, yes we'll get to that, when the time comes." Dib guzzled the other jack and coke.

Tak tried not to let the irritation invade her voice, "nervous?"

"Nope," Dib swallowed painfully nearly choking on his own larynx.

"I've return!" Al was alive, oh joy. "Your chicken and your really flamboyant clam chowder."

"Fuck off," Dib hissed under his breath. It went unheard as Al sprinted off with the empty glasses, probably to refill them.

The rest of dinner was entirely uneventful; it's what happened afterword that's worth anything.

Dib raced home too drunk to care about the speed limits and red signs. They entered his house, sat down, and before he could say incriminating, Tak was on his lap. She had made the daring move as he had removed his jacket, a bit overheated from the whiskey. The act had been perpetrated by her and at her insistence. Dib just didn't exactly say no. He threw off his coat like it had offended him some time during the evening and was about to open a soda when Tak said, 'just sit down a second, won't you?"

"Okay," was all he could mumble coherently. He flopped down on the couch sinking into its' cushions securing his fate.

Tak had thrown her legs over his thighs, gripping them like she would fall off a building if she didn't.

"Tak?" Dib was instantly drunker. On her smell, the way the groove of her body felt like a new angle, and how when she kissed him she tasted like salt water.

He gripped her, as she moaned perfect sounds, Dib knew then that two wrong people could make an absolute right. She cupped his face in her hands, as if it might slip through the cracks in her fingers. Dib didn't know what to do with his mouth; he had never been touched like this. Had never even been close, and now this girl was grinding against him hard enough to make a diamond. He wasn't sure if he should be embarrassed when his cock started to elongate itself or proud of its weight. When Tak felt it would she be angry? How far did she want this to go? What did she want from him really? Dib couldn't seem to shut off his inquisitive mind. What would happen if he just gave in?

Tak was loosing her control and was, instead of being arms length away, wrapped just as near, both physically and mentally. She hadn't counted on it being this exciting. The sound of Dibs unabashed moans or the dick she could feel better then the tips of her fingers all were enough to send her spiraling into ecstasy.

Dib noticed a change. Unlike the rest of his species he was quite observant. Something about her smell, no, her taste. It had changed. Whatever it was made Dibs' heart palpitate and his mind finally go blank.

"Ah!" Tak pushed away from Dib. He had been holding her so tightly that she almost couldn't breathe.

"What? What's the matter? Don't you like it?" Dib pulled Tak back into him.

"It's not that…" Tak was concerned. She too had never done anything like this, but she had heard rumor of what it was like, for her race anyway. According to her anatomy class the female Irken, once excited, releases a chemical that sends her mate into a sexual frenzy. It travels and is passed through mucous membranes, including the mouth and Stoolant opening. She wondered what kind of effect such a thing would have on a human. She stared intently at Dib. He was displaying all the signs of intoxication and something else. His pupils were dilated to their capacity, he was sweating, though that could have been a bi-product of the dry humping, and was giggling like a maniac.

"Tak this is a-maz-ing!" This was followed by a fit of uncontrollable laughter. "I can't believe sex is this much fun! We should do it all the time! But my throat hurts…"

"Shit. How do you feel, Dib?"

"Like, fucking you so hard you forget your name."

Tak had meant in regards to the symptoms, "what kind of drugs do human do recreationally?"

"Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, Psilocybin Mushrooms, Mescaline, Methamphetamine, Heroin, Methadone, Cannabis, MDMA…"

"What's that last one?" Tak interrupted him before he could rattle off anymore.

"Ecstasy!" Dib giggled before drawing Tak in for another round of kisses and some rough caresses.

"Stop!" Tak's brain was nearly mush. Dib was no longer ashamed of his manhood and was proudly prodding her with it. She had to think real hard to form a sensible sentence, "what does Ecstasy do?"

"It's a stimulant, a hallucinogen and has a similar effect on the brain as meth," Dib was tracing the inner line of Taks collar, barely stroking her nipples with every passing. "It makes you feel warm and fuzzy. And super trusting or so it's rumored…"

Bingo. Tak had inadvertently found the answer to all her problems, "oh, really?"

"Yup, so I trust that after I screw you into unconsciousness you will repay the favor another time."

Tak tried to act quickly but wasn't quick enough. Dib threw her to the couch and pounced, tearing that little bug from her ear that produced her hologram. Underneath him was now a full fledged Irken, green skin and all, just as he loved her.

"God you're amazing," he expressed with eyes that now saw and appreciated every detail.

Tak pouted. What would it feel like to have this human in her? If he came an inch closer the temptation would drive her mad, as if it hadn't all ready. NO! She was better then this! She was, sigh, an ex-elite Irken invader. Either way she was strong and didn't bend because of silly filthy stuff, like, well like this…holy cow her mind was getting all stupid. Was that thing in the boy's pants a stupid ray or something? Or was it the smell of his skin, or the way he pulled up her shirt to take dripping mouthfuls of skin. Something was wrong here.

"Tak?" she didn't notice this was a question right off. She just thought he was reciting the name purely for the feel of it against his lips.

"Dib…" why was she encouraging his trek into her pants.

"Do you really want this?"

Tak looked up, confused, "do you?"

"Are you kidding," Dib gave Tak no where to run, pressing his groin air tight to hers. "I would wreck you.

"Can I…" what was she doing! This was complete self-sabotage, "can I see it?"

"Hell yes," Dibs eyes, Tak couldn't help but notice, had shrunk back down to normal. It had been the kissing, but because it hadn't immediately been followed up by the actual act, the effects had worn off. But then why was he still so aroused?

It popped out of his pants like a jack-in-the-box. It was long and slender, much longer then it was thick, measuring nearly to his bellybutton. It was curved too, upward, and had a long line of fluid trailing from its tip.

Tak moved over Dib and for the second time claimed the dominant position. Dib was red-faced, breathing with laborious rasps and waiting for something to happen. He still had half his shirt up and a good portion of his pants down. Tak really had no work to do, other then initiate some form of contact.

Dib moved in for another kiss. Tak pushed him back onto the cushions, "down human."

Dib just kind of laughed nervously. Normally he didn't like the title Tak so often enforced on him, but now it was kind of arousing the way it shot from her lips.

"How do you humans do this?"

What ensued next was pure madness. What Tak had meant was how do humans pleasure themselves? And she wanted to watch, observe and study the process. Dib did what he did to himself on a near daily basis. He wasn't as opposed to the everyday ritual as one might think. It was something that was more necessary then he cared to admit, but could also be fun. In order to function properly inside the matrix he had to make sure, as previously stated, he was near void of emotions. This includes arousal. If he was ever horny it was never an option to sync with his computer. Therefore, masturbation normally preceded his adventures. And he was good at it. He knew his body all too well, had mastered the sound of one hand clapping, and could normally finish himself off in a record five minutes if necessary. Tonight he let it linger.

This made Tak really impatient. Something in the room, a new odor had been introduced and it was driving her insane. The scent was being kept in that vile like organ, she needed it to stop or reveal itself. Until then she wouldn't be able to think of anything else, just that aroma. How intoxicating it was. How captivating.

Tak grabbed Dib and took control of the motions she had been intently watching. She pumped for far less then a solid five minutes before he ejaculated all other his stomach and chin. Tak stared on with a mixture of disgust and great intrigue. She vowed she would never be in Dib's position, never act the way he just had. Moaning like a damned fool and gripping the couch, completely out of control.

When it was all done, Dib tore of his t-shirt to wipe the mess he and Tak made from his body. Tak stopped him.

"What is this?" Tak flicked her tongue around the stuff on Dib's chin before he could answer or warn her.

"It's like 40 percent H2O!"

Tak gagged on the consistency, and then braced herself for unbearable pain, but none came, "What the…"

"Ha, some sort of a breakthrough," Dib yawned openly, throwing his arms over Tak. Apparently it was bed time for the human.

She indulged him, for now, curling up against the contours of his body.

"What does this mean?" Dib traced the veins of Tak's arm up and down, feeling for a pulse. Curious to see if her heart had been as affected as his.

"It means…" Tak wasn't sure. "it's going to hurt a lot worse…"

Taks' warning fell on deaf ears. Dib was already dead asleep.


	2. Relapse

**Relapse**

**"Stay with your own kind, **

**and I'll stay with mine.**

**There's something against us, but it's not time.**

**So Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye..."**

**-Miserable Lie by The Smiths**

**Part Two**

Dib awoke wondering where Tak was. He reached out his arms trying to wrap them around something smooth and warm. He came up empty. He instead settled for his glasses. He rubbed his eyes ridding them of that haze that deep sleep leaves, then situated his spectacles onto his nose. Where had Tak gone? He called out for her but there was only the return of his echo. He was alone. This, unfortunately, he was use to. He decided that first he'd shower and then maybe eat. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt like breakfast but the events of last night had left him starving.

He hummed in the shower and while he ate, completely blissful. He only thought about Tak every minute, wondering where she was and hoping that she would soon come home. Irkens don't sleep, so she must've gotten bored sometime during the night and taken off. He wondered, most of all if she was thinking about him half as much as he was thinking about her.

After eating Dib went to his room and opened his wardrobe. Black. Didn't he have anything else? He grabbed the only grey shirt he owned along with his best black jacket and pants. He threw them on the bed and was about to dress when he caught sight of his reflection. He wasn't ugly, but he didn't consider what he saw handsome. The only thing he liked was the juxtaposition between the black of his hair and the ivory of his skin. It gave him a very striking look and made his eyes look rich amber opposed to a just brown. His body looked fit as in skinny. You could see the muscles of his stomach only because his skin was pulled so tight around them. He really needed to start eating and working out. At his height 6"1' it wasn't healthy to weigh what he did. What good was a boyfriend if he couldn't carry his girl into the bedroom?

Smiling at the prospect of Tak as his girl, he walked out of his room and tripped. "Ow," Dib grabbed his elbow which had taken the bulk of the fall and groaned. What the hell…? He thought as he looked behind him. What had he tripped on? He craned his neck over his shoulders to peek and saw a thin line, as thin as a spider's web stretched between the wood frame of the door. On either side of it perched like tiny arachnids were two blinking lights. Dib barely had a second to ponder this oddity in his home when something else happened. And then it all happened, everything at once and so supersonic fast. A band constricted around his ankles then something shot from the ceiling, tying his arms together.

"Shit!" Dib flopped onto his back with all the grace of a dying fish.

He looked up, above him three blinking spy cams. Two of them dropped down as he stared, binding his knees and thighs. The last one clamped down over his mouth, inserted foam that quickly solidified and left him gagging. Dib craned his eyes to an encroaching shadow; someone was in the house with him.

Tak looked down on the thrashing Dib, "Sorry but you've left me no choice. For eleven years I've been trying to get the location of your father's lab from you. Eleven miserable years!" she cracked her knuckles into a fist and glared into his watery eyes. "Sorry really…but it's become imperative that I get what I want, and that I get it now!"

With that Tak deployed her spider legs and hoisted him into the air, "and don't worry about your lab Dib, my friends will look after it while you're away." Tak broke into that high pitched screech she called a laugh. Dib used to find it cute, now he saw it for what it really was, bloody annoying.

Two Irkens busted through the door and instantly began searching for the lab's entrance.

They weren't dressed like Invaders, but soldiers, dressed in the height of maroon military fashion, with double breasted jackets, large gauntlets, boots up to their thighs that buttoned all the way, and helmets that shielded every part of their face from Dib's calculating eyes. He was most intrigued, however, by the long buzzing sticks that each one carried. They might have been similar to cattle prods in their making and purpose, but to this Dib wasn't too keen on finding out.

They began to tear the house asunder in their quest for his lab, throwing open cabinets, and smashing windows and doors.

Before they would cause any irreparable damage to Dib's home, Tak stopped them,

"It's in the loo you idiots!"

They jumped to attention, eager to please their very angry commander. Dib could only watch on in horror as they followed out her orders, dislodging the wooden door from its frame with the sound a train crash might make.

Tak called in her cruiser and within seconds boarded it with the struggling Dib in tow.

Dib didn't like this feeling, the feeling of being prisoner. Of being not in control of a situation. As Tak's cruiser flew higher she mused, "ah, yes the others are arriving!" She flagged someone down with the wave of her hand, "I figured it would take several officers to thoroughly explore that lab of yours."

Dib glared at her. If only there was something else he could do, other then stare threateningly. It was then he realized that he wasn't completely helpless. No, he was never entirely helpless. In fact, he remembered something then that he had done in preparation should an occasion such as this arise. But would it be worth it? Yes, he would be able to protect his secrets in a manner of speaking, but at such cost. Everything he had worked on for his entire life would be gone in a matter of seconds. But he couldn't and wouldn't let his scientific discoveries and endeavors fall into the hands of the enemy. Then there would be no hope for anyone, not even himself.

He had to do it.

Dib slammed down on his heel, waited, and then slammed it down twice more in rapid succession.

Tak turned annoyed by the sound, "what do you think you're doing?" The heel of Dib's boot was blinking red and the pace was gaining momentum. "What have you done?" She grabbed Dib roughly by the collar. It was his turn to laugh.

He'd show her what he was capable of, that he wasn't useless. That he had always considered the chance of betrayal on her part, and was well prepared for this event.

Tak thinking the shoe was a bomb, tore it from his foot and tossed it in the disposal bin which automatically launched its contents out towards earth.

Once the boot had been ejected Tak gloated, "Ha I Win!" but Dib was still laughing.

Before Tak could formulate a rebuttal the pod was rocked, caught in the line of an explosion that ripped from the planet. Debris crashed against the spacecraft, scrapping and denting its' exterior. The windshield nearly shattered from the extreme vibrations brought on by a final wave of devastation. There were a few aftershocks that erupted through the air, and by the time their roar had subsided Tak's eyes were blurred and Dib's ears rang.

During the explosion Dib had slid into Tak knocking her off balance. They could only lie there now, completely disoriented.

When Dib could hear again, he heard sirens. The police would be wondering what happened to the old Membrane place.

Tak looked down on the planet and saw the smoldering crater that used to be Dib's house and lab. It looked as if someone had taken a cosmic ice cream scoop to dig the spot from the dirt it rested on.

"You IDIOT!" Tak was furious. She back handed Dib twice, back and forth, as hard as she could but he just wouldn't stop laughing. "Why are you LAUGHING? Everything you've worked on? Gone!" She pulled the gag from Dib's mouth, allowing him to speak.

"At least I took out all of your friends!"

He was right. Tak had implored the Tallest to send their very best analysts, hackers, and computer specialist. Now they are all dead and Tak would most likely be too when the Tallest found out.

"Curse you Dib!" Tak shouted. "Ship proceed as planned."

"Yes, Sir!"

"Do you know where we're going Dib?"

He could only guess, "Irk?"

"Precisely. Where I will present you to my Tallest. Hopefully then they will see my worth and allow me once again to be an Invader."

"After eleven years Tak, you're going to do this to me? To us?"

At this Tak glowered, "there was no 'us' Dib!"

"Then what was last night, huh? You could have captured me, but you seduced me instead. So why do it, huh? It just doesn't make sense unless you care about me." Dib used all his strength and balance to lean close to her. "Unless you wanted me."

"Shut up!" She pushed him back, "you're nothing but a filthy little human, and if it weren't for your father I would have destroyed you long ago!"

"Then why didn't you?" Tak could handle no more questions and shoved the gag back into his mouth.

_I'm right_, Dib thought, _and it scares her._

"See that Dib?" he found it odd how she seemed to punctuate each sentence with his name. "Out in that great nothingness lies the massive. In just a few short hours I will have what is rightfully mine."

Dib did see all that nothingness and was horror stricken. It had been years since he'd seen so much emptiness. So much space for things to go wrong. He felt ill and would have vomited had the gag not been sealing his mouth. He suddenly and very profoundly ached for the closeness of his lab, with its' low hanging ceiling, walls, and familiar dark places. The gravity of what he had done to his home, what Tak had made him do, finally began to sink in.

She would pay, dearly.

"Now if you'll excuse me," Tak switched on a screen and then spoke curtly to it, "my Tallest are you there?"

There was a long static filled pause. Finally contact was made. On the screen showed two obese aliens, one with red eyes and the other with purple. Dib had only seen the Irken leaders once in his youth and they looked nothing like the blobs he saw before him now. He had remembered them as being skinny, fit and intimidating. Stupid for sure, but intimidating none-the-less. Now they just looked sad and on the verge of cardiac arrest.

"Yeah," the red one opened his mouth, unleashing a waterfall of half eaten crumbs.

"Sirs! I have the Dib-human with me and…"

"Who?" The purple one spoke that time.

"Dib. Membranes son, he's only the most powerful human on the planet. And I…"

"Whose Membrane?" Red shoved more food into his mouth as he finished the question.

"Membrane was a professor responsible for many scientific achievements. His heir Dib here was left with everything and is the last remaining…"

"Why didn't you get the professor?"

"Yeah?"

Tak swallowed hard, and tried to speak quickly, "he's dead, sirs. But his son…"

"That's no excuse!"

"Yeah!"

"His son here knows the whereabouts to his late fathers lab which houses the largest amount of weapons in this solar system and the next."

The Tallest stopped eating. Finally they seemed to realize the importance of what Tak was saying.

"What do you want us to do?"

Tak sighed. Outwardly calm, but inwardly elated, she said, "I need access to your interrogation facilities, seeing as they are the best in the universe. With enough Irken persuasion he will reveal the location of the lab to me. That I guarantee."

"I'm assuming you'll need our location?"

Tak nodded her head. Once she received the coordinates she ended the transmission.

Tak turned around smiling from ear to ear, "did you hear that? It's only a matter of time."

Dib didn't even give Tak the satisfaction of looking at her. He was slumped over, staring at his one shoe desperately forlorn.

"Dib."

He still didn't respond. He was alive, at least he was breathing, concentrating on swallowing and inhaling at intervals to avoid choking. He was thinking about last night. About her taste and the way she had felt. The way she had unthinkingly cleaned his chin of cum. Why? Why had she initiated anything? Why had she ever touched him, why if she was going to do this? He tried to extend his arms but they were tied too tightly. He finally looked up at Tak and saw something he recognized briefly as concern. Why?!! It was all too much. He started gagging as his throat closed up and tears streamed down his face. He started sweating too as he squirmed violently. He needed to get out or he was going to positively die. His body was a civil war. His veins felt stretched, his heart fought against the confines of his chest, and the rest of his organs would just be better if it did jump through his ribcage and disappear.

Then Tak noticed it. The smell, it had returned, emitting through Dib's every pore with a new strength.

Tak was mesmerized by it. She leaned in close to Dibs' neck and breathed in a lungful of the stuff. Then her lips connected.

Dib went instantly rigid and stopped sobbing. Even the tears froze in their ducts. She could feel his heart thumping against the grooves of her lips. She moved instinctively down the length of his jugular to his collar bone. The smell was becoming extremely potent. She wanted to taste it. Tak bit down and Dib stiffened a little more, but instead of shrinking away from the pain, arched into it. He wished he could control himself but it was involuntary these animal responses.

Tak continued downward and Dib shut his eyes. He couldn't think of anything else. He was now truly powerless and for once he didn't mind too terribly.

Tak had reached his stomach, now what?

She lifted up that lovingly picked grey shirt, and began to kiss the skin underneath it. Dib's eyes flew open again. What the hell was she doing? Of this Tak wasn't even sure. She just moved, until she reached his navel. She watched delightedly as his abdomen lurched with every movement of her tongue. His muscles looked nicer and nicer the more she played with them. He was beginning to get so tense he thought he might puke or ejaculate.

Which ever came first.

A scientist and conquer at heart, Tak gauged his reactions and studied his weaknesses. He seemed to enjoy the gentle circling of his navel more then anything else. So that's were she focused the majority of her attention. Every time she did something that sounded like sobbing emitted heavily from Dib's esophagus.

He could still barely move and had to writhe to show what he liked. Even though he wasn't sure what he liked at all. This was wrong. Why was she doing this? To break him? To hurt him even more then she already had? Was that even possible? Could she really be that cruel?

Taks senses were being bombarded with that musky scent. It was almost palpable from where she was now situated. It was permeating every membrane, becoming a part of her system. She would be sick with him for weeks. Tak spared no flesh the wrath of her mouth. Her favorite thing was to tickle the v's of his hips and watch him shiver.

She unclasped the bonds of his thighs; they were keeping her from having any more fun. It dropped to the floor and Dib relaxed his knees, dropping the prose of unwilling victim hard, like a brick.

Undoing his pants, Dib shimmied up allowing her to pull them down. Were all human males this easily excited?

_Or_, Tak entertained the idea, _I'm I just that good?_ She dug the end of her knife like tongue into his urethra.

Dib gnashed his teeth together, nearly breaking them on the gag. Her tongue was agonizing, but her mouth was so wet and accommodating. He'd never felt this. Never excepted this. He gripped the back of his seat and bucked his body around, trying to pull his member out of the line of fire while still thrusting it as far down her throat as he could risk.

Tak removed the dick with a pop from her mouth. A line of saliva connected the head of his penis to her mouth. Dib had never seen anything so perfect.

"Do you like this?"

His face was red, and he was drooling, eyes rolled far back in his head. He certainly looked wrapped in the throws of endless pleasure, but was it genuine?

"I said," She wrapped that long snake-like tongue around the end of his penis where the shaft ended and connected with the tip. She moved it up and down and the movement started to speed towards terminal velocity when Dib cracked, nodding his head with fervor. He did like it goddamn it. He liked it a lot, and there was no way to hide what his body was so rigidly proclaiming.

_She's evil_, he thought. _So fucking evil_.

Tak swallowed him again, and the contrast between the freezing cold air of the ship and the warm comforting furnace of her mouth was enough to make him melt. Dib moaned a particularly long moan and Tak panicked. He couldn't cum, not now. She wasn't done with him. She wanted to hear his noises. That ragged porn god orgasm scream, she had elicited last time. She was never going to get it with that damned foam in his mouth.

"If I take this out, you have to promise you'll scream."

Dib nodded his head. Once his mouth was freed Tak raised herself to his lips. The kiss was short lived but promised passion, pain and vengeance in its wake.

"MASTER!"

"Wha!" Tak nearly had a heart attack hearing the voice. She scrambled to her feet leaving Dib half naked and confused.

"We approach the MASSIVE!"

Tak's antennae shot right up. That was fast. She turned back to Dib who was trying to pull his pants back on and failing admirably.

She made a move to help him.

"Don't touch me!" Dib's venomous tone could have sent fifty people into anaphylactic shock. "Arg!" He fell flat on his back.

"Don't be stupid," Tak hoisted his pants up. It took all the self-control she had not to drag her talons down his side and start the torture all over again. "There," she even buttoned them for him.

Dib watched her hands, "what are you playing at?"

Tak blinked in response, unable to answer.

"We have reached the MASSIVE."

Tak refused to be swayed. Her mood would not be dampened and she most certainly would not let herself feel any regret. She was too close. Too close to what she'd worked towards for the last eleven years.

Tak signaled the ship, "permission to board, my Tallest."

There was no reply, just the opening of the gigantic doors which split slowly and dramatically. Inch by inch the innards of the ship were exposed. Dib watched transfixed, he had always wanted to see the mother ship, though under different circumstances, and was enthralled by every little detail of it.

Tak parked her pod against a wall. There was a click and the whole spacecraft began glowing a vibrant blue. Apparently these docks automatically refueled the cruisers.

Gripping him by the collar, Tak dragged Dib out of the cruiser. This was a challenge. He was at least a foot taller and 30 pounds heavier. She finally managed to lift him onto a platform. Several Irken officers surrounded her, brandishing their weapons menacingly.

"State your business."

Tak glared down at all of them. She might not have been taller then Dib, but she most certainly was taller then the majority of other Irkens. She eyed their weapons with vague interest then stated with masterful authority, "I have something for the Tallest they are expecting my arrival."

An officer eyed her skeptically, "my Tallest." He spoke into a communicator around his mouth. "There's a female at the docks. She is carrying a strange alien with her."

"Oh, yeah that's Tak. Let her in."

The officer stared at her again, "What's that?"

"That?" Tak pointed to Dib's limp body, "that's the most important commodity that has ever passed through this station." Tak grabbed him by the scythe, "take him," she thrusted the hair into the Irkens soldier's hands, "to the interrogation rooms. And restrain him. If he escapes it will be your head. Keep a close eye on him, he's smarter then he looks."

Dib was passed into enemy hands. He knew then all was lost. As they lifted him onto a moving platform that whisked him deeper and deeper into the bowels of the massive he felt his hope slipping away from him. He closed his eyes, breathed in through his nose and out his mouth, and focused on the feel of the wind. Wishing he could disperse into dust and blood and ride it through the cracks of the ship. Infiltrate the ventilation; be breathed into Irkens lungs to fill them with this overwhelming feeling of helplessness. This wish for death could've destroyed an army.

9


	3. Overdose

"**Now what do I do?**

**Can I change my mind?**

**Did I think things through?**

**He was once my life, he was all I wanted."**

**-Beautiful Things By DJ Tiesto **

**Overdose**

**Part Three **

Dib was strapped to an operating table, stripped of everything to expose the outlets on his body. He didn't even have his glasses. Everything had been removed and sent of, probably to be examined. He felt cold, and started shivering, but was it really due to the freezing temperature? He could hear the clattering of instruments. Some sort of torture instruments no doubt. If all else failed he could swallow his tongue, or bite it off. Bleeding slowly to death seemed a better out then being kept alive for the purposes of others. The only thing he had control of now was his mouth, what he could say, and his breath. Soon he might not even have that. He needed to think and act quickly. He weighed the pros and cons of suicide. He imagined the blood filling his mouth as he counted backwards from one hundred until darkness, as an Irken prodded him.

"What do you suppose these are for?" The Irken, jabbed his finger into the hole at Dib's wrist.

"AH!" Dib hated the intrusive feeling.

The scientist just kept digging deeper and deeper until the hole bottomed out. He removed his finger to find it covered in blood, "this is bizarre. Why would he have need for these?"

Tak had neglected to inform the scientist about the holes or how Dib used them to sync with all forms of human technology. Dib most definitely was not going to tell them how they worked. He was afraid they would plug him to their system and force their way to his memories, a sure fire way to get what they wanted and fast.

"He doesn't use them to eat or breath, so what function…?" a new scientist employed a long steel device to explore Dib's mechanical orifices.

Dib's eyes watered and then overflowed. He forced himself to hold all sounds down. He was not going to show them that much weakness, even though the pain was excruciating. This was nothing like his computer. These things didn't belong in him and where foreign. He felt the tips of his fingers go numb and then he lost feeling in his entire forearm as the metal hit a nerve.

"Move your fingers." The scientist demanded. "Now."

Dib really tried. Something was blocking it. The scientist had hit something vital and movement in his left arm was now a thing of the past.

As the metal was retracted Dib felt instant hot relief creep slowly down his arm and into his extremities. The metal stick was coated thickly with red. The Irken discarded it into a sink full of sterilizing fluid and the blood pooled from it like smoke out of a morbid cigarette.

Dib breathed a huge intake of air. He had stopped the moment the cool metal touched his skin.

"What should we do next?"

"Well Tak didn't leave us with any specific instructions. Why don't we have some fun while she's away?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Well these things," he gestured to the holes, "might be some sort of conductors. Shall we find out?"

Dib couldn't see what was going on. He recognized the Irkens as green and red blobs, but couldn't see what they were next to or what they were toying with. Suddenly there was a revving sound like something being charged. Dib heard a popping and then clicking, whatever the Irkens had been preparing was now ready. The fuzzy blobs turned to him, wide white half moons on both their faces signaled to Dib that they were smiling.

They touched something to Dib's chest, something heavy and warm. Why was it warm? This greatly concerned Dib. They pushed the tip of it into one of the bigger outlets, the one right over his heart. At the penetration Dib's stomach rolled. What was going to happen and how could he stop the inevitable pain that was guaranteed to come with it?

The thing turned on with a spark.

_No_, thought Dib. _They wouldn't_.

The staff was electric and would surly cause irreparable damage to his circuits and mind. He had to stop them before they destroyed him. Before they made him malfunction, a defect, and never useful again.

"STOP! DON'T DO THIS," how could he plead sympathy from something that wasn't at all human? "IF you do this, you could potentially destroy everything Tak has worked for. You'll be banished if she or the tallest find out that it was you who…"

They were still smiling and laughing at his noises, "Shut up alien." The Irken jammed the rod deep into his major outlet.

Dib screamed until his voice broke, until his throat bled. It was dark in the inside of his skull were he swore he could smell his brain frying. His blood boiled and burst through veins releasing smoke and fire. He tried to scream again, this time something coherent and begging but his throat was dry and his lungs empty. When he was finally able to produce a sound it wasn't him who screamed the word.

"STOP!"

Tak had entered the room in a mad rage, "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?"

Dib fell limp onto the table, every muscle in his body felt removed from the bone. He heard his heart pounding fast enough to bust a couple ribs. He noticed he wasn't breathing, his lungs had been rendered useless.

"You damned IDIOTS!! GET OUT!! I'll have to do this myself."

The scientist left in a huff, dropping their playthings with much protest.

"No one here every let's us have any fun."

"Your 'fun' nearly cost me my victory. Now leave and don't come back. I will come to you _if_ you are needed."

Tak turned back to Dib, "oh, god." His eyes were open but hard and fake looking.

"Dib," she grabbed hold of his head and shook him violently. "Dib wake up."

Dib did wake up, turning to the side and vomiting.

"OH, dear…" Tak did what she could to clean the vile mess. Those scientists would pay for this and be severely punished. "Dib can you hear me?"

He weakly nodded his head. Though it didn't show, he was happy to hear a familiar voice, even if it was hers. The very one who had gotten him in this miserable situation.

"Dib you have to tell me where your father's lab is or I will bring them back in here and I will let them do whatever they want to you. Do you understand?"

"Do…it then. And let them finish… me off…this time."

Tak's chest hurt. What had she done, and would it even be worth it in the end? She placed her head on his chest, even the benevolent motion made Dib jumped. She was so sorry. She had never imagined this.

"Dib, tell me…"

Dib spit out a mouthful of spit and bile, "no."

"Fine Dib. But I will get what I want one way or another. I always do."

Dib said nothing. He was not going to break and neither was Tak. An immovable object had met an unstoppable force.

"Fine," Tak stormed from the room. She shouted at the scientists who had been waiting outside the door, "blindfold him and then turn these off." She tapped the two way mirrors. "Not even you sadist are going to want to witness what I'm about to do."

Her fellow Irkens adhered to her command, running into the room and doing what she had ordered in record time. Afraid that if they took too long she would unleash that boundless wrath on them.

They exited the room hastily, "all is as you have commanded it, Sir."

"Good, now leave!"

They marched off, hardly looking back. Not entirely sure if they should report the encounter to the tallest themselves. Should they be alerted that Tak, the Irken who had been banished nearly 12 years ago was running rampant in their interrogation room, with thousands of irreplaceable equipment at her potentially rebellious fingertips? No. They had better things to do. Very few Irkens had priorities as well ordered as Tak. In fact most considered heaving large amounts of snacks into their gullets more important then circumventing possible mutinies. This was such the case for the scientists who meandered down to the cafeteria not two seconds after being dismissed. Never giving a second thought to what was going to transpire in the room they had left.

Tak reentered the interrogation room, but what she was planning to do exactly was beyond her. Dib lay subdued, unable to see and barely think, he had decided to just play dead.

Tak didn't make a sound. Silent as a ghost she walked to Dib's side. He was breathing with regularity, but the sound was strained and agonized. Tak noticed that around the metal the scientists had probed where long vein like scars that ran the length of his chest. What had they done to his body that by extension was hers? Tak traced them, the way he had traced her veins not so long ago.

_Shit_, she was going to regret this for the rest of her life wasn't she?

Dib didn't recoil from her touched but he didn't necessary melt into it the way he normally did. In the end he had no idea who was actually touching him, so Tak wasn't completely offended. Yes, the way she touched him. She could produce those little hitches in his breath, those reddened cheeks, the tense muscles. This beautiful thing, so sensitive to her. Now she knew what she wanted. Well, it had been what she always wanted it just wasn't until now that she was wiling to admit it to herself.

She pounced onto the table and straddled Dib all in one fluid movement. His body stiffened, as if rigamortis had finally set in. Tak brushed her lips across Dib's cheek.

"NO!" he shook her off, "Who are you?"

Tak was too proud to say her own name, to admit that she was sorry and that this is what she had wanted from the beginning.

She pulled off her gloves. She had yet to touch him with the bare palms of her hands and she wanted to see how it felt. She pulled them off finger by finger and the snap that resounded from their removal, startled Dib into another panic.

"Stop it for the love of God." Tak didn't listen. Instead she raked her nails down the sides of his abdomen, enjoying the way he fought so hard to squirm away. He was warm and squishy, it would be so easy to stab though that exterior. Her nails made long red superficial cuts down his sides and Dib trembled.

"S-stop…" his protest was so feeble. Tak could see his breath as puffs of steam in the air. He must be freezing. The average temperature on Irk and therefore the massive was a frigid 50 degrees. Dib twisted his wrist, trying to slip them from his bonds, but he wasn't that skinny or that flexible.

Tak attacked Dib, doing terrible spectacular things to his stomach and up and down his torso. Her head dipped between his thighs as she attempted to finish what she had started earlier upon her own ship.

Dib fought the assault as much as he could, until lust overwhelmed reason. Until the blood left his head to inflate that awkward organ and make him forget why the hell he was fighting something that felt so damned good? He gave up, and arched his hips into Tak's mouth, who proceeded to suck him off.

Tak was a huge fan of instant results and she always seemed to get them with Dib. Maybe that's why she liked this barbaric, sticky, and all too human ritual.

A pretty blush spread across Dib's face and his mouth hung open. The opportunity was too much, and Tak had to kiss it. If anything her aphrodisiac like saliva would make him enjoy this all the more.

At first, Dib didn't kiss back. His tongue lay limp like a slug while Tak tried to coax a reaction. He felt used, violated and above all ashamed. He liked this, a lot. The hard erection standing like an exclamation point against his stomach was an undisputable testament to the mortifying truth. He was enjoying be taken advantage of. He was sick, warped, twisted. Only psychos drew pleasure from rape. He blinked under the blindfold and tears poured down his cheeks. Tak's tongue breached his lips and finally her fluids took hold of whatever craziness was left in Dib's head, releasing a torrential amount of endorphins. He moaned welcoming the feeling of comfort and trust. No longer afraid.

When Tak broke the kiss, Dib's head followed begging with newfound physical strength for more. She pushed him back. She would have loved to undo those cuffs and let him take her. Every atom of her body ached for his larger form to envelop hers and dominate it. But that was not going to happen, not as long as there was the slightest chance that he might escape. Escape and leave her.

By the end of all this, Tak's whole frame was shaking uncontrollably. She tried to balance on her knees as she wiped of her shirt. How she needed Dib's hands around her. In a momentary lapse of reason she undid his left restraint. Surprisingly he didn't tear off the blindfold or make a move to free himself completely. His hand did exactly as she had wanted it to. He groped out for her blindly making contact and tentatively exploring what he found. When he fingered her antennae, he grabbed it angrily and smashed her mouth to his. He rocked her body until she was bouncing inches off his lap.

"Take off your pants," this wasn't a request. It was an order.

The alien did as she was told. Shamelessly she mounted Dib again. Then realized, what was she suppose to do? She had a slit down where Dib's genitals where but it had never been used. In her anatomy class, it said that's where an Irken male puts his 'worm' but was it the same for humans? She grasped Dib's manhood uncertain of just how much this was going to hurt. No Irken worm was this big.

"It's okay," Dib assured her with a crooked smile. "Come here."

They started kissing again. Dib moved his cock by her opening, "when you're ready."

He knew it was her. He had to have known. Would he be this nice, this passionate to just anyone or was it simply the drug like influence of her spit?

She slowly sat herself inch by tortuous inch onto his erection. Every second of the penetration was painful. She should have known from its girth and length that there was no possible way it was going comfortably inside her, but she kept inching. Provoked by something more willful then reason.

Her partner didn't necessarily share her sentiments. Every second for him was one more glorious inch of warmth and tightness, utterly unknown to any other human. Dib bit his lip. This was the final frontier.

Once she was planted securely on his lap, Tak stopped moving and was frozen with shearing pain. She could only whimper as her body tried to accommodate the massive intruder. Dib relished the spasms that where coming so unrelentingly. He reached across his chest and undid the other restraint.

Tak gave panicking a good effort, but it was short lived. She tried to hop off of Dib's lap as he sat up to latch his arms about her, but she was stuck in place. Impaled on him.

They snogged long and hard. For at least five minutes, until Tak could sit still and had stopped fidgeting, "can you move?" Tak nodded her head meekly.

"Yes."

Dib lay back down. Hands still firmly placed on Tak's hips, he guided her movement. A quick learner Tak had the rhythm down in moments and Dib released her, moving his hands all over her body.

But it wasn't enough, Dib needed it harder and faster, she was too soft and cautious. She wasn't going to break the damn thing. He had to take the initiative.

"Come on you started this now, FUCK ME!" Dib hoisted Tak into the air and holding her stationary over him slammed repeatedly into her.

It was Tak's turn to moan. With a ragged porn goddess orgasm scream she was pushed over the edge of no return and came loud enough to put the whole ship up in arms. Had something so savage really just been ripped involuntarily from her body? She couldn't believe it. One second she had had complete rein over her emotions and in the next she was crying, begging, screaming for Dib to never stop fucking her. She was sure to be an insatiable lover, he could tell.

Her cum shot straight into Dib's urethra, which rocketed towards his brain, elevating him to a high he'd never known existed.

His orgasm started in the back of his throat then zigzagged down his spine. Every synapsis was filled with Tak and every impulse was for her. She filled him before he filled her, coming so hard his head bashed the operating table. He bucked as his body quaked with exhausting pleasure that tightened his muscles into tetanus like knots. He would be sore later but for now there was only unrestrained, incorrigible ecstasy.

Tak finished first and then laid there. Dib dropped into a sleep almost immediately, flopping onto his back with a thud.

Tak pulled off of him, dripping torrents of human seed from her abdomen. She fell off the table, tripping to the ground and slipping twice before she could regain her footing. She dressed without hesitation. All this time and no information, it would look suspicious to the others. She needed to do something quickly if she wanted to save any face.

The outlets! Why hadn't she thought about them earlier?

"Computer, send down an input cord."

"Yes, Sir!" a wire slinked down from the ceiling.

"If I can access his brainwaves I'll be able to use the mainframe to find his memories." Tak shoved the plug into Dib's brainstem.

There was a surge of light from the connection of metal to metal and the whole ship lit up. Tak was typing madly away at a keyboard when suddenly the keys no longer responded to her touch.

"What the?" Sparks, shot from the nape of Dib's neck, ran all the way up the wire attaching him to the internal hard drive of the massive. Lights began to pop and extinguish as each level of the Massive in sequence from top to bottom, blacked out.

"Shit!" Tak in the space of two minutes had short-circuited the entire Massive.

It was pitch and pandemonium inside the Mothership. Tak really panicked now. She could hear voices speaking fast and angry above her.

"Check the transformer!"

"No it's the circuits they've all malfunctioned."

"Trace the origins of the virus."

"We can't. Everything's down!"

"Search all floors!" Then Tak heard footsteps. And Lots of them, all spiraling downward towards her and Dib. The latter was still lying unconscious and directly connected to the hard drive that had just 'mysteriously' crashed. She would have to unplug him manually and get them both out of there before the entire Irken knocked at their door.

Tak wrapped her hands tightly around the massive wire and pulled. It dragged slowly out from Dib's head, sparks and static flying everywhere as it did. Her fingers burned against the metal, she could smell her flesh cooking, but she had to keep pulling. It finally disconnected and the relief was instant. Her fingers were numb but at least they weren't on fire.

She ripped the blindfold off Dib, "wake up…" She shrieked.

His pupils were the size of buttons that consumed his irises and blacked out the white collagen.

"Dib?" there was a knock at the door.

"Is anyone in there? Answer!"

Tak smothered a whine, she had almost replied. This unquestioning subordination was getting out of hand.

Whoever was behind the door waited patiently until they were sure no one was in the room before scurrying off.

The silence was ruptured by a terrible hacking sound. Dib was convulsing. His yes rolling wildly around in their sockets he didn't seem to be able to focus them. Tak checked his pulse. It was racing faster and faster, but he wasn't breathing.

"Oh dear…" Tak moved with lightening speed and cat like grace and in seconds she and the near unconscious Dib were back at the docks.

Luckily her pod had fully recharged before the power failure. She tore it from the wall with devastating force. The giant gaping hole were her cruiser had been would be a telltale sign that she had fled in a hurry. Making her a prime suspect for the surge, they would pursue her. That is, when they got their ship up and running.

Tak sped off towards Earth at a speed that was neither safe nor reasonable. She had no idea what to do. Her instinct told her to ditch the human, but she couldn't just eject him into space. She had to at least leave him somewhere familiar. Somewhere were people could help him. Something awful was happening to his insides, she could tell by the way he continued to vomit tremendous amounts of bile and blood. But what was it? And what had caused it? She had never seen a human disease like this one, in all her years on Earth, nothing could compare to the scene playing out before her.

"Hold on," she cheered herself on mostly. Not to say she wasn't worried about Dib.

She zipped through the Earth's atmosphere faster then a meteor and with just as much force. Her ships tail end was set ablaze, but not even that deterred her journey inward. Finally she reached an oxygen rich area. It was white, all white. And covered, with she couldn't quite remember what the stuff was called. Frozen rain was how Dib had once explained it. Only when it was really cold did it fall in sheets from the sky. Dib had told her that water recycled itself in a natural process. The same rain Tak had first encountered one lightening lit afternoon, had been falling for millions of years. That's what Dib told her. He had tried to kiss her too. That she remembered with aching clarity. "Lovers for hundreds of generation have watched this same rain fall. They made love to it." he moved in then leaving caution to the wind, and his intrepid move had left him nothing but a profound sense of stupidity.

But this had not been the first time and most certainly not the last. Tak had handed him his heart on several occasions. On one of the few adventures they had outside of his house was to the beach. Tak could see Dib now, shoes off, pants and sleeves rolled up and knee deep in a tide pool. He had been searching for things like sea stars to impress her with.

"Ouch," Dib yelped but didn't withdraw his hand. Two of his best character traits in a seconds time, determination and inquisitiveness.

"Ha!" When he finally did retract his hand, he held a very strange shell in it. "Look Tak. Isn't this wonderful?"

Tak was covered head to toe in a long trench coat, Dib's to be precise. He had lent it to her under the condition that she at least endure the ocean for a few hours. She was also equipped with an umbrella, just in case the sun evaporated the clouds and shined down in its full atomic force, to burn holes in her skin faster then Dib could bore into her heart.

"This," he grasped her hand, so much smaller then his. It was swallowed like his crooked footprints by the surging tide, and she wondered if this is what wanting was like. "Is a hermit crab."

"Hermit, like you?"

Dib smiled, "yes, I suppose your right. It can even attach and detach from it's house whenever it feels."

"Can I hold it?"

"Yes, but it might pinch so please be careful," Dib laughed under his breath.

"What?"

"Oh, I was just thinking, this crab isn't very much like me at all."

"Why?"

"Because it might hurt you and I never would," Dib stared at her from above the rim of his glasses.

Tak grabbed the crab quickly. She couldn't hold his stare and hand at the same time. The combination of both was dangerous like taking a knife to a gun fight, begging to be taken.

Another time, Tak had been walking to the store. Dib was hungry and too busy in the matrix to make the trip so Tak offered to go. Slipping between the aisle leisurely grabbing at this and that, she had heard a slight interruption in the radio waves projecting though the small connivance store and instantly new Dib was to blame. The transmission was cut so smoothly from the 90s pop to The Smiths that no one, other then Tak, even noticed. Her ears were filled with the lyrics of hand in glove all the way to the checkout counter, but it didn't stop there. The heart felt love song followed her all the way through the bus station, down the lamplight streets of downtown and reverberated so loudly into the far reaches of the city that people emerged from their houses to come and listen. Listen and wonder who the song was dedicated to. Tak knew, even though she really wished she didn't.

Why was she thinking of this now? Dib was still unconscious and unresponsive. She thought the least she could do was clothe him before she dropped him into the void. She dressed him in his cloths which she had had all along and with a slight feeling of impending depression, shot him from her ship.

She saw Dib's black form spiral down towards the hostile planet. She watched him fall until he vanished from her sight. She turned from the window, and screamed the way no Irken had ever screamed. Her shrieking was painful, and made her organs burn, but she kept screaming. She fell to the ground fetal position against her cold metal floor and she screamed. Into her hands into the empty air. She pounded the ground with her hands until they bled, screaming for tears for something physical to shed to prove that she wasn't so hard to love. That she wasn't heartless. But the tears were frozen deep in her mind, fixated there and nothing was going to change that.

The snow covered Dib's far away frame as Tak begged for the release granted to everyone but her. Even the sky was permitted to dump its excesses to show that even it sometimes regretted the devastation it could cause.

**Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed this story, I really enjoyed writing it. Oh, dear wait... I make it sound like it's over don't I? Well it's not, two more installments to go if you count the epiloque, which you should... Much love darlings. **


	4. Detoxification Part I

"**I took my love down to Violet Hill**

**There we sat in snow**

**All that time she was silent still, **

**If you love me won't you let me know**

**If you love me won't you let me go."**

**-Violet Hill, Coldplay**

**Part Four:**

**Rehabilitation Part I **

It was cold where Dib was, as snug as a mother's womb or a lover's embrace, though he wouldn't rightly know either. In Dib's head he saw a cityscape with an orange apocalyptic sky streaked with blood. The city had many tall building and appeared very prosperous. But everyday that the sun rose and set the buildings would deteriorate. As if watching a time lapsed photo Dib saw the buildings rapidly falling away. In less then a few seconds the buildings decomposed from their peak to their utter removal. And the sun just kept rising, everyday on a little more chaos, until everything was gone. He witnessed the sun as it rose once more on the expanse of nothingness below it as if to mock its loneliness. It was cold where Dib was and the sun wasn't shining, it hadn't even bothered to ridicule him, he was that pathetic.

Dib twitched his fingers, he was numb to sensation but in control of movement and for now that was all he could ask. He lifted himself off the powdery ground and immediately sank through it. He fell down a rabbit hole no larger then his body and flipped twice through dead air before his face connected with solid ground. Blood expelled itself onto the floor when Dib opened his mouth to scream. He gushed torrents from what felt like a broken jaw and a broken psyche. He was a casualty without the goddamned body bag to keep him warm. Dib let his mouth hang open like a panting dogs as he lied catatonic on the floor until the blood and spittle and vomit stop flowing so profusely.

He wiped his outer edges of his lips, he couldn't see, he couldn't remember how he had gotten there and he had a splitting headache. He rubbed his temples languidly, and remained curled in a tight ball as he tried to recall the how and why.

He had been on the massive, Tak had captured him. He had been interrogated. Well, tortured really, by a few sick scientist and then darkness, and someone had been touching him. It had been Tak, and she had been wonderful. Acting solely on her good morals and virtues no doubt, she had mounted him. Now with awesome clarity he could taste her again, as if she was rising up in the pit of his stomach. Oh god that taste. Dib knew that if he could harness that flavor and concentrate it that it would perfume out a thousand four leaf clovers.

Dib choked on his exhale. Breathing in a rust smell that was nothing like his estranged lovers. Where was he? In front of him was a long hallway dark and uninviting. Behind him was the same emptiness. Dib didn't know what to do. Thinking of Tak made him want to die, but he couldn't hang himself with the noose in his stomach and couldn't swallow the poison of his thoughts.

She left you, again. Really by now you should be use to it.

"Shut up," Dib tried to fight the rising maliciousness that was growing with every tear he refused to shed.

_You trusted her, loved her, and she betrayed you. For what? To get in good with the people who ridiculed her? Isn't there something a little backwards about all this?_

"Yes," Dib gripped his stomach as he walked his insides were burning icy hot.

_Are you going to continue to act the good guy? Look at what she did to you. Took your virginity and then dropped you here to die. It's only by luck that you found this place. Use this opportunity to find her, catch her, and kill her_.

"Ugh…"Dib had never had such dark thoughts. He clutched his temples. When he hit his head it must have shattered his sanity and left him split. This defense mechanism, this other voice was horrifying but right. She did deserve to die.

_And she will_.

He walked down the corridor in front of him. There was nothing for a long time, just darkness and steel, and then he saw the light.

In front of him was a massive room with wires, tubes, and a gigantic computer. It was white and blue, glowing with a delicate hum that meant something somewhere was operating. It was the cleanest and most elaborate lab he had ever seen. The technology was almost as advanced as the Irkens, but much more precise looking. As if it where easier to use, but capable of much more power. Was this system man made? Dib moved closer and spoke out in awe, "wow."

"Intruder detected!" A long wire jutted from the wall. "State your name!"

"Dib." he said this shortly and without fear.

"What is your relation to the late and AMAZING Professor Membrane?"

"No," Dib mumbled in disbelief.

Dib's wide smile split his face in half. He had found it and now Tak would pay.

* * *

She was flying back to the massive. She had to get there and explain to the Tallest that the human had done it. That he had even tried to explode the ship before she neutralized him. They would believe the story, they would definitely still be pissed, but as least she wouldn't be executed. Hell, if she was able to get the mainframe up and working again they would probably be so grateful, that they'd promote her back to Invader status, anyway. Especially if the snack machines were unharmed in the process. She was nearly there, she could see the Massive hanging stationary only a few yards ahead. She hastened her speed, she was seconds away from the main gates when something awful happened. The fleet surrounding the Massive, protecting it, fired at her, perhaps mistaking her for an enemy ship.

"NOOOOOOO!" she screamed as her Voot cruiser went up in flames. She spiraled out of control as she plummeted back towards Earth, and before she knew it she was sliding through the snow she had abandoned Dib in only minutes before. When she finally came to a stop she was so discombobulated, that she just lay on the floor of her ruined ship somewhere between life and as close to unconsciousness as an Irken can get.

* * *

At that exact moment Dib was learning to use his father's laboratory particularly the security system. This he needed up and running, first and foremost, just in case someone tried to come for him. Just in case Tak was anywhere on the planet.

"Computer activate security Cameras."

It's compliance was instantaneous. The giant screens that covered every inch of the wall in front of Dib flashed to life. He now had a complete layout of the entire country in front of him. it was desperately barren, white and unrelenting.

"Computer scan for life."

There was a flurry of motion as the cameras all zoomed in at once, turned sharply to the left and then came to rest on a small spacecraft.

_Oh my god. She is on the planet, and she's all alone_. Dib felt such a devious tingle run down his spine, shocking his stomach setting his insides on fire. Yes, it was then Dib felt the numbness sneaking in. The pain of his soul dying, shattering inside him like glass splinters and then pushing out his epidermis. His skin burned, and his brain turned with a whirlwind of excitement and vindication. He would have her soon so very soon, all to himself, alone in this lab with all these terrible machines. The idea made Dib's stomach leap and he puked again. God his head hurt.

He needed to find something to get her in. something mobile and fast, he needed to get at her before she regained full consciousness. This might not have seen fair but she hadn't exactly been merciful.

He scanned the room, "computer where are the vehicles?"

He heard a loud metal door peel open and next to him was a room housing at least ten top of the line cars, snowmobile, helicopters anything you could possibly need for transportation. He walked up and down the line of transports slowly and considerately. Which one, which one?

He found it. It was small, sleek, subtle and from the looks of it, speedy. He opened the door with the push of a button and stared in awe of the exterior. This was definitely his get the damsel in distress and put her in more distress, steed. He sat in the front seat noted with curiosity that there was no steering wheel, so putting two and two together order it, "go."

The car sprung to life with a blinding blue light, which consumed Dib's vision momentarily. When he could see again, he found himself surrounded by metal inputs. Each one shot into a different orifice, one in his arm the other his stomach, a few in his legs and one large one to the back of his neck. Dib screamed as it tried to shove and drill its way into his body, there was no way it was going to fit. His dad had had the outlets too, that's the only thing Dib could think of. But they had been bigger then his, much bigger. Dib's scream finally tapered off as the inputs came to rest, poorly, inside him putting him into a coma like state. Dib was reduced to a drooling moron for no more then five minutes, lying still and wide eyed as if dead, before an electric current pulsed through his brain, sending him reeling into the network of the car. He was now one with it.

Dib cut through the snow like a razor blade, leaving a whirlwind of flakes caught in the powerful suction behind him that trailed for several seconds before landing back to the planet in an upset flurry. His mind was working at similar breakneck speed, the same deranged thought running through his head, _find her and take her. Find her and take her_.

When he did find her small cruiser Tak had already crawled nearly fifty yards from the wreck. His arrival was herald by the screeching of tires as he abruptly hit the breaks, which failed briefly due to the slick snow and finally came to a spinning stop feet from where Tak was currently standing. She looked at the tinted windows in knowing horror. She walked around to its front, tracing her reflection in the windows with a certain morbid curiosity. When she was situated before its headlights, Dib flicked them on, temporarily blinding the girl in front of him.

"Dib?" she cried out into the storm. Her voice didn't carry and was thrust back where it came.

"Dib please…." Her words died on her tongue as a machine gun popped from the side of the vehicle.

"Di-?" he fired a few rounds into the ice around her. Tak curled up into a powerless ball and waited for the dust to settle

"Get in the car."

Tak stood up against the car, "no."

More rounds and shells littered the air, the flying bullets where closer this time. The snow they kicked up splattered against her shoes; the danger was real and imminent.

"NOW!" the voiced boomed over the speaker system so loudly that is momentarily disrupted the flurry of snow in front of it. Tak had no choice.

She hopped in the car, clumsily avoiding Dib's dead eyes as she tried to settle into her seat.

He didn't look at her either, he was eerily quiet instead. Tak almost wished he would yell at her, scold and reprimand her in a loud and rough voice that would have been more bearable to the silence, broken only by the haunting howl of the wind and snow.

She opened her mouth to speak , but was interrupted by the firing of his engine, rumbling to life. He did a complete 180 in the snow at a dangerous speed and then travelled as quickly as circumstance would allow him back to the lab that Tak didn't yet know existed.

Dib smirked though Tak couldn't see it, and thought of all the god awful things he was going to do to her. Things that would make even this cold hearted bitch feel. By the end of the night Dib would be dead and so would she.

_And then,_ he thought, _I might just die with a smile of my face after all_.


	5. Detoxification Part II

"**I took you home, **

**Set you on the glass**

**I tore of your wings **

**And I laughed…"**

_**-Deftones Change (House of Flies)**_

Detoxification Part II

Dib dragged Tak from the car, kicking and screaming. Her yells were mostly incoherent, just grunts and growls. He dragged her into a random room picked for no special reason, in fact it was a kitchen, but it was large and filled with knives and that was good enough for Dib.

Dib picked one such dagger up and thrust is against Tak's throat, pushing her down onto the floor, "give me one fucking reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

Tak considered the sharpness of the knife, could it really hurt her? Perhaps not. Either way she did feel an obligation to explain everything to him, even though she didn't quite grasp the situation herself, "I'm sorry Dib."

"Sorry? SORRY? Oh you're fucking sorry are you? For what the leaving me for dead thing or the raping me thing? Huh? Which is it?"

Tak grimaced as he pressed the blade deeper into her skin, "Both Dib I'm so sorry. I should never have. I should have…"

"Should have what? Left me alone or killed me eleven years ago?"

"Neither Dib, I," she hesitated then, like she had for over a decade. She pushed the thought aside like a nasty thing, like something unobtainable, or taboo, with practiced skill. She pushed the sensation to the back of her mind, and swallowed the pent up emotions until it felt as if it never had existed, until she had almost forgotten thinking about it.

Almost.

She didn't love anything. Only being an Invader, her planet Irk, and her Tallest. Everything else fell short in comparison. Didn't it? The one thing she had always been sure of, she now questioned with every fiber of her being.

She even startled herself when she reached out for Dib. He, disgusted, shoved at her and then turned on his heels and paced the length of the kitchen.

Tak was trying to cry but again she just trembled, like mini quakes rocking her own personal world, "Dib?"

Dib turned to her. He was hunched and exhausted looking, he seemed to be bleeding out of every orifice and as wild as he looked his eyes seemed lackluster, and resembled an old mans. Dib most certainly did feel as if his entire life had been used up in only a matter of hours and now he only had a few minutes to live.

"Don't touch me," Dib pushed Tak arms length from him.

"NO," Tak moved to him a second time, but this time she didn't just reach for him, she jumped on him, wrapping her legs around his waist so tightly she might have cut off circulation. She kissed Dib.

He furrowed his brow and sealed his lips. To Tak it felt like kissing a brick wall. She entwined her fingers irreversibly into his hairs and cooed, "please?"

Dib opened one eye and accessed the situation. Behind Taks bulbous purple eyes was a wooden table probably used for eating? He had other plans for it.

_Take her. _

Dib lurched forward, falling into Tak. She slammed against the hard mahogany so forcefully, that she was temporarily knocked breathless. With his larger frame Dib easily overwhelmed Taks fragile one, securing her wrists above her head. His other arm he used to palm the dip of her back and lift her to him.

Normally he initiated touch gently with tenderness and restraint. This time however he started by biting her, scratching her, and gnawing her. His teeth splintered her capillaries into bruises and turned the bruises a yellow hue.

Tak choked in pain, trying to form coherent words and implore to his civility, but it had been striped from him. The events of the day had left him raw and rabid.

Dib's eyes watered, he felt awful and out of his mind. _Stop_, he told himself, _just stop_. But he couldn't, she deserved this for all she had done to him, the tragedy she had made him. She deserved to know the full force of his damage.

"Dib it hurts," Tak struggled with his ferocity; she actually got a growl in response. This was like trying to verbally reverse a train.

"Stop!"

Her pleas for mercy made Dib hard almost unwillingly. He hated finding her cries exciting but what a sweet vengeance. She had taught him the best way to break someone was sexually, she could only blame herself for her current predicament. For her tailored made cycle of karma.

_This is what she deserves. _

Dib knotted bunches of her shirt into his fist and then tore what he had collected. Tak froze; she never imagined he'd be this rough or violent. The stuff he was doing with his tongue was absolutely criminal. She squirmed against the drag of his mouth down her sternum. That had been nearly unbearable, but when he reached her stomach she lost it.

"Dib, PLEASE!"

Racing back up to her ear so he could shout in it, Dib told her to shut up.

"You wanted this earlier didn't you? I promise this is going to be nothing like your goddamned fantasy. This is going to be the worst kind of hell."

Tak's chest was heaving. She was inhaling deeply and exhaling sharply like a human crying would, but there were no tears. She was incapable.

_Teach her how._

His blood soaked tongue left red streaks across her jaw and throat. His free hand wondered down below the waist of her pants. He found her center and hooked his fingers into it.

Tak slammed her knees together and kicked her feet, but nothing was going to deter him. He was three knuckles deep when he found something of interest. Something smooth flat and hard. Irkens have a G-stop?

The yell that tore through Tak was like a shot from a shotgun. On a certain instinct Dib rolled with the recoil of the shell, against the tightening and loosening of her insides until they were on fire.

"Cum for me Tak. Cum for me." She could only retaliate with strangled noises and had no choice.

Dib matched her, moaning like he was the one being finger fucked. He was shivering and drooling. Too enrapt in what he was inflicting on her to even swallow. Not to mention his damn jaw was broken, which did nothing to help his current state of mess.

Mesmerized by the strained look on her face and the way she jerked unevenly into the gyration of his fingers, Dib didn't even realize he was dry humping the hollow of her thigh like it could do him some justice, until he felt climax rising like mercury.

"Shit," Dib felt the semen boil in his balls and knew he would pop soon. He removed his fingers from her cunt and Tak actually whined, "no."

Just as he'd thought, she was-

_an insatiable little slut_.

He stuck those soaked fingers into his mouth and thought about how drugs took longest when ingested. Whatever, she tasted wonderful, tart.

Dib released her momentarily to undo his pants and dismiss his shirt. She fumbled with her numb legs in a lame attempt to escape. She only got so far as turning on her stomach before Dib caught her around the waist, cinching it in a death grip. Her pants provided little protection and were torn asunder in the struggle that ensued. Tak felt a prick like the lethal injection, begging to puncture her skin, "let me fuck you,"

Tak felt the trail of kisses Dib planted up the back of her neck and cringed, her breath visible fog, "no."

"Let me rephrase that," Dib pulled the knife from his back pocket. He pushed it hard and close to Taks neck. His hands weren't steady, "let me fuck you NOW!"

Tak was in danger of being penetrated from every angle, by equally lethal weapons. Pain, humiliation, and potentially death awaited her no matter what she decided. She weighed her miserable options. One would be quick the other lingering, she just wasn't sure which was which. She closed her eyes and listened to Dib's heartbeat on her back. His breathing was just as fast. He was nervous, like a near virgin should be. Under different circumstances, she too would have been so aroused just to know he was. But not now, she was only afraid. Tak breathed as profoundly as she could with Dib crushing her.

"No," death was so simple, easy almost the sound of it on her lips.

"That's too bad," Dib knocked Taks knees further open with his own. "Cause now I'll have to rape you." He tried to slam into her but she was too tight. He barely got a third of what he had to offer into that small opening.

Tak screamed but no one was going to hear her in the lab. It was large and empty.

Dib shut his eyes and tears streamed so hard down his face that they could've left scars.

_Fucking stop it. Stop all this while you can. _But he couldn't stop his hand. He shoved three fingers into Tak's mouth, shouting, "Suck them, or you'll be sucking my knife."

It should have made him hard, everything. But it just didn't. He felt him self deflating as he tried to go deeper. Something was wrong, obviously. He couldn't hurt her, not like this. Not the way she had hurt him.

"FUUUUUUUUUUCK!" His scream was primeval and savage. He finished it by driving the knife deep into the wooden table, so close to Tak face that she went cross-eyed trying to follow it.

He pulled out, he pulled out! Tak slinked down to the floor as if by removing his dick Dib had removed her spinal cord. She turned slowly around on her knees coming face to face with the crying Dib. He lunged into her lips, and they crashed together like a clap of thunder. He sobbed hard into her mouth, his tongue franticly tried to outline every inch of her lips, and memorize it's taste before it was gone forever. He tried twice to pull her into his arms, but she was too frightened by him. He thought of that first night he held her to sleep, he wanted it back so badly, but it would never be that simple ever again. Not for them at least.

The thought was too painful. Dib begged Tak, "please, please." But he had no idea what he was asking for. Something she couldn't give him. For the ability to compress himself down to nothing, to become a negative of what he was now. To be the empty space around the terrible scene he was making, and not the thing itself.

He broke it as abruptly as he had started it, "if you won't be with me, forever," he paused here. The words in his lungs were like nails, puncturing holes in his ability to speak them. But he managed finally with a large intake of air and determination, "then start running."

* * *

Tak was plowing her way through knee high snow. Her boots were sufficient enough to keep her not only warm but safe from the searing pain that came with water. Her upper body however, was no where near covered enough to keep her safe. Dib had tore too much of it and now the harsh arctic winds were free to knife against her skin uninhibited.

She was looking to get back to her ship, even if it was completely useless, it would provide shelter from this horrible blizzard that promised to become even more ruthless as the night progressed. She wondered when Dib would come looking for her, how much of a head start was he willing to grant her before the urge to find her and take her overcame that fleeting generosity.

She stumbled and fell into the powder. She was covered now in it, instantly concealed under the unstoppable white falling flakes. It was cold that was for sure, but what was worse was the burning of her skin. The snow hit her eyes and melted, nearly sealing them permanently shut from pain. Tak blinked her eyes rapidly trying to free them of the abrasive feeling. Tears streamed down her cheeks. _This is what it feels like to cry, then huh? I never want to do it again. _

**This is not the end Children! I know I said only two more installments, but I've decided to chop this particularly long chapter up into three sections. So technically now there are only two more installments. I must warn, it only gets worse before it gets better and then worse again. **


	6. Detoxification Part III

"**You don't wanna hurt me**

**Let's see how deep the bullet lies,**

**Unaware that I'm tearing you asunder**

**There's a thunder in our hearts baby,**

**So much hate for the ones we love**

**Tell me we both matter don't we?**

**You **

**You and me**

**You and me won't be unhappy."**

_**-Running up that Hill by Placebo **_

**Detoxification Part III**

It was deathly quiet aboard the Massive. Nothing could be heard. Normally there was a continuous buffer of sound, either from the engines, the beep of radar, or the hum of surrounding space crafts, but as of now there was nothing, only impenetrable silence. But at least there was light. The Irkens had managed to get a few generators up and producing enough light to illuminate what needed most to be illuminated, this of course being the Tallest private chamber.

"I'm scared," Purple confessed to his partner. "What could have caused this?"

"I don't know."

"Could it have something to do with Tak and her human?"

"Yes. When we find her again we will find out for sure."

"It just seems very strange," purple said. "they can't pinpoint the cause or even the area from which the blackout surged. They say it seemed to happen everywhere all at once. Something very powerful must have done this."

"And that's why you're scared."

"Yes. What's to say it won't come back?"

"Now you're assuming it's physical, capable of strategy."

"I'd rather be safe then sorry, we need to run a manual diagnostic and get this ship up and running asap."

Red looked deeply at his partner Purple as his terror shifted into his own emotions until they became his burden as well, and he felt its sensations. He felt the fear twist down his spine and into his fingertips the curve of his stomach. Empathically he took any excess of fear his twin soul was feeling and then neutralized it within himself. He reached out for Purples' clawed hand and took it definitively in a firm grasp from which there was no wiggling away. Purple didn't fight the touch, not like he normally did. Neither of them had yet to warm up to the idea that they were forever life partners. That one could not exist without the other, that they were connected on levels that even they didn't quite comprehend. They would be together forever, even if far away from one another. Such was the fate of all Tallests.

"My Tallest?"

Red let Purples' hand go, "What is it?"

"One of our scouts has found something that may interest you."

You. That's how they were referred to. As a singular person, as one breathing entity split between two. But that is precisely what they were.

"Go on."

"If I may your Highness. Bring her in."

Tak was lead into the room escorted by two rather large Irken guards. She looked utterly disheveled and bruised. She dropped to her knees as soon as her arms were released and there she stayed in a sort of bowing position that was by no means a sign of surrender, but simply exhaustion.

"Well, well… Wha-" Red took a second to sniff the air, his feelers wildly twitching. "What is that smell?'

"It's him," Tak nearly screamed. The horror she felt was etched clearly on her face. Her sanity seemed to have left her stranded and floundering just above the edge of reason. Whatever had happened to her must have been awful.

"Who's 'him'?" Purple inquired.

"Dib, the human. He's escaped and now he's coming back for me," Tak tried to maintain her Irken Invader calm, but she just couldn't. Within seconds she was pleading and groveling something she had never done before in her very long life, "please you must find a way to stop him."

"What could one human possibly do to us, the Armada?"

"He knows you're out here, he knows you're stranded, he knows your defenses are down, and when he sees I'm not on the planet, this is the first place he'll come, and he will come with powerful weapons, the likes of which have never been faced before."

The Tallest considered for a moment, "sounds dangerous, but why would he be coming for you in particular. Unless…" Red and Purple simultaneously looked to one another and then approached Tak. They came within touching proximity of her before they sniffed the air around her with their antennae. They moved her closer when they detected a scent that was familiar and frightening. She tried to scramble away as their feelers thoroughly explored her, face and torso. Finally they let her go, releasing her so suddenly that she fell backwards, landing on her heels.

"She said the smell was him. It's all over her."

"Do you think?"

"Yes, it's very palpable."

"Ask her."

Red turned to Tak, stooping down to where she lay on the floor and in a very grim and fatherly tone questioned, "did he mate with you?"

Tak was so taken aback at first she just snorted, "what?"

"You heard me. Did he mate with you?"

The question, Tak knew was rhetorical. They could smell him in every pore of her skin, of course they had mated. But what was the big deal? Tak was afraid to answer them, they were so serious. What punishment awaited her when she finally surrendered the truth?

"Yes."

The color seemed to drain from Red's face, "I see… give us a minute." Red turned to his partner grabbing him by the arm and leading him around a corner a few feet out of hearing distance from Tak and her escorts.

"Purple do you realize the implications of this?" Red whispered violently.

Purple seemed to be deeply analyzing what had just transpired, "no."

"Smek it." sometimes Red pretended to be stupid and so, he thought, did Purple. They did this to lead others to the conclusion that they knew less then they really did. However, he was beginning to think that Purples ignorance was really more then a well acted façade. "Doesn't this all seem a bit familiar to you?"

Purple really thought about this one, Red could tell by the way his face contorted into a little squished version of what it really was.

Red leaned into Purple, and told him telepathically, _the last time this sort of thing happened it was between you and me._

"No," Purple outright said this, disbelief filling his eyes.

"Yes, can't you see? This isn't a mating year, it was with an alien so there was no intention of reproduction, it was purely for a recreational purpose."

_Because they enjoyed it._

_Exactly. _

_Because they wanted to._

_Yes! And now who knows what the consequences will be. What happened to us might happen to them. And what happened to us made us the Tallest. _

Red could almost hear the rusty gears turning slowly in Purples head, "oh dear. They're a major threat…aren't they."

"No," Red moved closer to purple, barely overtaking his slightly smaller frame. He did so not in offense but to comfort. "Nothing is going to hurt us. We are going to keep those two separated. We are going to kill that alien and then we're going to banish Tak, do you understand?"

_Well we are a little past our prime don't you think? Maybe this is just natural? Like when we replaced Blue and Grey, ya know?_

"Yeah and do you remember how we did that? By killing them, that's how!" His words were so volatile that Purple cringed away from them, like they might actually cut. "I refuse to let that happen. I won't let anything hurt you." Red did something daring and to accentuate how much he meant the protection he promised, kissed his partner.

The connection was short lived. Purple turned his head before anything could get really heated, much to Reds' disliking.

Red frustrated and mortified punched the wall as he rounded the corner startling both Tak and the guards who were waiting to hear a verdict.

"Take her away, far away. Make sure the human doesn't find her this is imperative!" Red was positively seething at this point.

"Yes, sir!"

"And keep an eye on her this time." The Tallest was nearly finished with his dismissal when another officer entered the room.

"My Tallest," He was heaving and seemed fairly afraid to relay the message he carried, "a ship has been spotted heading towards us, it's huge and well nothings been able to stop it. It's coming fast." He was speaking so hurriedly that his words streamed together.

"Calm down soldier what are you talking about?" The Tallest leaned into him to better catch every syllable.

The Irken breathed, "we're being attacked."

There was more eerie silence. Purple, who had finally returned, and Red took their consecutive turns to stare down at Tak, "is this him?"

"I can't imagine anyone else."

"Neither can I."

At the present there was a loud explosion like a thousand bombs being detonated.

"That's him, WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" The Irken solider would have pissed himself if he had the capacity to. Instead he fell to the floor in a crumpled heap and shivered.

"Well that's noble." Purple smirked.

"Get her the stulnt out of here." Red's timing was impeccable. Just as Tak and her guards passed through the doors, a transmission came through on their main screen. It buzzed rhythmically with white noise for a few minutes before the video display popped to life.

The towering picture in front of them showed a grotesque image. It showed a boy with matted black hair and wild brown eyes. Whose face was caked with blood and gore and wearing an insane grin. His teeth so strikingly white in contrast to the blood that dripped from his lips that he looked like he had just devoured something rather then suffered any blood loss himself.

"Hi," it hissed with a tranquility of someone who had past on to a higher level of being and understanding. "My name's Dib, and I'm pretty sure you know what I'm here for."

"Listen," of course it was Red who spoke. "I have haven't the slightest inclination as to what you might be here for. And…"

Dib's head dipped down to a control panel and for a moment his eyes were hidden by the reflection of light off his glasses. There was a furious typing that ensued and when it finally ceased a single missile was fired. It might at first appeared pitiful out there amongst the hundreds of fighter cruisers ready to destroy and if necessary intercept at the cost of their own lives an attack of this manner. But this one was different, it was fired upon by nearly thirty of the sixty remaining ships and no damage was done. The projectile weaved in and out of the counterstrikes as if it had a mind of its own.

It followed a well coursed trajectory through the Armadas lines of defense arriving at the Massive completely unscathed.

The thing seemed miniscule in scale when compared to the biblical proportions of the Mother Ship, but the damage it did was deep and detrimental. It rocked the Tallest where they stood nearly miles away from the actual impact. The screen went to snow for a couple of seconds while it tried to regain the temporarily interrupted connection.

Terrified the Tallest ordered their fighters to attack.

When the roars and screams finally ebbed, Dib's ethereal face reappeared, screaming itself, "Don't FUCK WITH ME! I know she's there you ASSHOLES!"

Dib normally didn't talk like this, in fact it was so out of character this abrasive new persona that he himself was a bit disgusted with himself.

Red swallowed; if he lied again he could only guess at the next giant machine Dib would use against them. He decided that in this case omission might be a better option. But that was plan b.

_Purple see if they've at least have enough power in the generators to active weapons control. Do this now. _

Purple nodded his head and quickly without a word exited the room, to make contact with the ship engineers in another.

It was then something became apparent to Red, "why aren't our ships firing…?" the order had been given nearly a minute ago. What was wrong? Red muttered this to himself and hadn't expected Dib to hear but he did.

"Because they're afraid. They fire and they die. They recognize this and your cowardly little armada no longer wants to fight for you. You are alone in this."

Red felt the constriction of his throat, it would be hard to breath soon. He knew this was true. Irk was not in trouble, just them… and they were such sorry leaders that no one was willing to give their life to save theirs. Not these sad peons at least.

"Send out the elite forces," Red hurriedly whispered into his transmitter. "Prepare them for a full frontal assault."

These soldiers were treated with utmost respect and many of them were in continuous training not only as fighters but as rulers too. Several of them had stakes in being successors if something were to happen to Red or Purple. These soldiers would never let anything happen to the Massive so long as they may be living on it one day.

"This is your last chance alien. Before the elite invaders get here. I suggest you leave while you still can."

"Thank you for that unsolicited advice. But I think, if your elite forces are anything like these disappointments, then I will be able to hold my own."

No more then a few minutes passed before the ships launched from the mother. Flying at terminal velocity towards their single prey. They were swift and deadly, their power would surely be able to at least damage the force field surrounding Dib's ship.

They fired all at once and then in a highly exercised sequential order. It was effective and in a moment Dib's cruiser was ablaze.

"GODDAM-" the portrait projection of Dib died very permanently.

Red smiled to himself, well that was exciting for a moment. It might have seemed worth it to let the boy live a spell longer just to keep things interesting on this ship. He only entertained the thought briefly before dismissing it. Too risky. If Dib were to get to Tak as he was intending, it would mean the end of his rein. The end of all he had worked to accomplish these last long hundreds of years.

He watched the inferno and calamity through the glass before him and as he did he felt a strong shiver of relief. One that erupted into a cacophony of laughter, so harsh and gut wrenching that he nearly fell over with the release of it.

As he laughed heartily down at the floor he heard a magnificent clamor. Something of a whooshing sound that was gaining momentum and volume. He looked up quickly to see the ship Dib had been piloting now not only on fire but barreling straight towards the already previously damaged end of the Massive.

"What?" apparently now Dib was on a suicide mission and determined to kill Tak and everyone on board no matter the cost.

Before Red could even send out a distress call to evacuate the ship the two collided. Red could feel the burst of hot air as it flew throughout the Massive knocking the breath out of him.

Alarms began to ring out strong and incessantly, "Intruder Alert. Intruder Alert."

"Curses," Red picked himself of the floor and headed out towards the crash site.

As soon as he opened his door he was greeted with all around anarchy and chaos. Irkens were running back and forth scared for their lives and completely uncontrollable with fear. Nothing had ever even gotten close to attacking their precious mother ship, and now something foreign was running about the bridge making a b-line for the royal offices. The alien was deadly and readily equipped with machines powerful enough to kill several officers at once, and they weren't humane deaths. No one wanted to fight this assailant with his guns and his meanness. Only Red who courageously ran in the opposite direction as everyone else and hoped that he would be able to confront this person and face him mono y mono. That is before he rampaged through the hull and massacred everything.

Red finally waded through the panicked stampede and found himself alone with the alien on a battle field very unrecognizable as the engineers quarters. There was smoke wafting up from several charred bodies and small fires blossomed up from the lower levels as if the tendrils of hell were slowly creeping.

The windows showed the debris of all sorts hanging suspended in a weird sort of hellish display. Dib was lackadaisical as he observed the mess he made.

"Ahem." Red feigned a cough to get Dib's attention.

Dib turned spasmodically towards the Tallest, his arms and hands twitching with an epileptic like tic. He was rabid and insane. Not just looking but deep down too, and the tallest could almost smell his disease. This couldn't possibly be the human Tak chose.

"Were is she?" Dib asked in a hollow voiced that seemed to belong to someone else, as if he were being control by a puppeteer.

"I don't know who you're talking about."

Dib revved his engine, he shifted the barrel on his shoulder and aimed through the scoop, "if you want to live another day to rule your populous of spineless inbreeds then you best give up the goods." Dib ended his sentence in a fit of dry coughs and heaves. By the end of the fit, Dib had collected at least another liter of blood into his mouth. He spit this as defiantly as he could right to the Tallest's feet.

"Are all your kind this sickly?"

"No, I'm just one lucky enough to have run into one of your kind."

"The girl, Tak?"

Dib actually smiled a sincere one, "there we go that's what I'm talking about. Now where is she?"

"Look uh, Dib?" Red shook his head to make sure this was actually addressing the earthlings by name. "You're dying, how about I give you a very fast vessel and send you home, where you can get proper care."

"Fuck you, don't patronize me." It was then Red noticed how very tall this Earth being was. If he did get to Tak it would only be a matter of time.

"GO HOME DIB. We will see to it that she is reprimanded for any wrong done to you or anyone else."

"You better not put your dirty hands on her, she's mine." Dib cocked his gun and a shell flew from the cylinder.

Red had to make a decision and fast, if he didn't tell him where she was then he would be killed and another would be interrogated. So and on and so forth the process would repeat until Dib found someone with knowledge perhaps his counterpart. Red closed his eyes, stopped breathing, and thought about this raving lunatic ramming the end of that gun into his lover's throat. Suddenly he sympathized with the human. If Purple had gone missing in a similar manner he too would have scoured the universe looking for him and eliminating all in his way.

He had killed for him once and would absolutely do it again if the circumstances called for it.

He caved.

"Alright kid, she in the prisoner quarters probably in cell three which is reserved for top priority inmates. She will be heavily guarded, but by the state of things that shouldn't be a problem for you should it."

"Not at all," Dib smiled very handsomely.

"I'd say you have fifteen minutes before the guards get to you. They won't kill you if you're lucky."

"Thanks," Dib aimed, and waited for the guilt to hit him. When it didn't and he still felt nothing but repulsive anger towards anything associated with Irk, he fired. One. Single. Shot.

Dib's boots made heavy clomping sounds that echoed through the abandoned halls of the prisoner's quarters. _Heavily guarded my ass_, he thought, but perhaps he wasn't close enough to Tak. A more likely idea being maybe there were no other prisoners here and that's why there were no guards. This area was completely unaffected by his crash landing, however they were probably called to arms when he invaded.

He rounded a corner and ended up face to face with three massive guards, so Red had been telling the truth. They didn't slow him down in the least. Before they could even turn around and acknowledge his presence; he aimed and fired his flamethrower, shooting them in the back. This to him was not cowardly, no it was just ruthless. They instantly caught flame like dry branches and in a few seconds they were dead or dying. Writhing and screaming for mercy from this new and unwelcome sensation of pain. Dib didn't grant it to them instead he watched them burn away to ashes, with vague interest.

He shot down the door using the bullets to blast the lock clean off. The rest he kicked from the hinges, exposing Tak who lay motionless on the dirty cell floor.

Fear speared him cold through the heart, replacing the anger with pure terror. Was she dead? Had they killed her in anticipation of his arrival?

"Shit," Dib abandoned his weapon leaving his arms free to grip the limp Tak.

"Tak wake up," he shook her violently and eventually her eyes fluttered open.

"Dib?" Her eyes wouldn't focus, they must have drugged her. Sedated her.

"Yes, it's me," having her back in his arms was like the brightest shade of yellow.

"Are you going to kill me?"

That had been the original intention, to kill her to seek the ultimate revenge. But now he knew that hadn't at all been what he'd set out to do. If he really wanted to kill her he would have done so back in this father's lab, but he had let her go and the regret had been overwhelming. His hatred an iron mask that smothered and blinded. The air was cold were Dib was and it felt damned good in his burning lungs. He began to cry and the tears marred his skin. If he was going to die he didn't want her to as well.

"I-I don't think I c-can."

"Do it before they do."

"Why would they kill you?"

"To keep us apart."

"Why? You're not making any sense."

"I-I told them we-we mated and they were scared. They said to keep us separated no matter what. The only way to do that permanently would b-be to kill us."

"They are threatened by us?"

"Yes, they will kill you if they find you. You have to leave,"

"I don't…," Dib's beautiful eyes were innocent again. Forgiving and giving up hope for a better past, "will we ever be happy?" he was hysterical now, choking and sobbing out every word, hardly able to catch his breath.

"Oh, darling." Tak cupped Dib's cheeks. Her eyes were opened. The sedative had worn off and she was in full control. "Of course we will."

"Pl-please come with me."

Tak considered this stroking Dib's hair. He wasn't going to leave without her. He would rather sit here and die of blood loss then loose her again. "Yes I will go with you." She lifted herself from the floor but Dib could not find the strength to follow her.

Without her support he collapsed to the ground, coughing violently. Tak picked him up from the sickly mess of his expulsions and carried him, without effort through the threshold of their prison.

He curled up against her fetal position and without meaning to, let the lyrics of a song bypass his lips. The words were so garbled and his tongue so numb that Tak was barely able to recognize them. When she finally did she knew them to be the lyrics to Dib's first declaration of love, the first he had been bold enough to express over a cityscape loudspeakers. His vow to her.

Tak leaned down and kissed Dib on his lips, and he tried to back.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Tak ran and on her way formulated a plan.

Dib had killed everyone in the tunnel so there was no one to resist as she moved towards the escape pods, the closest happened to be in the mutilated engineers quarters. Sparks flew from busted breakers and the floor pooled with Irken blood. Small fires still burned and the air was thick with smoke. Tak could hear a distant rumbling but wasn't sure what it was or where it was going. Was this part of the Massive being severed from the rest and dropped into space? It was possible that it was so damaged that it was falling off like a dead limb. She had to move quickly.

She hurtled along, over obstacles, and past dangers. Dib's head bobbed lifelessly, she feared the worst. He was getting heavier and his grip was loosening.

"Hold on, for Christ sake!" she repositioned him onto her back so he was riding on her like a child would. His gangly limbs completely uncoordinated and difficult to work with, but she made it safely to the destination.

She quickly punched in the coordinates to earth, a hospital to be exact, and lay Dib down in the cabin.

"Wake up, Dib."

"Did…we…m-make it?"

"Yes Dib. We did." Tak strapped him into one of the seats, making sure he was safe and secure. Then, biting her lip Tak pulled Dib's glasses from his nose.

He blinked against the foggier vision he was now straddled with, "why are you taking those?"

"So they'll believe me when I tell them I killed you."

Her tone was so mechanical that its seriousness didn't at first register with Dib, "What?"

"If we both leave they will come for us and they will win. If I say you're dead and that it was me who killed you, they won't think anymore on it." Tak exited the pod leaving a very confused Dib.

"NO! NO FOR GODS SAKE. NO!" his arms were flailing wildly trying to grab her and force her down, to keep her with him. But his fingers just kept swinging through empty air, through dust as fine as on the wings of a butterfly. This pod was to be his cocoon and his metamorphosis a complex.

"Dib my lover, my life, don't' be afraid." She pressed the button sealing their fate and Dib's cries died in the sphere. Her finger lingered over the launch pad for a few agonizing seconds.

He struggled against his belts, thrashing and shouting, "YOU SAID YOU LOVED ME!"

_And I do_, the response was not heard by his ears, by known in his mind. In the groove of his brain her voice seemed to blossom out and he could almost feel her ghostly hands in there, finger fucking his impulses to the beat of hers. He stopped screaming and listened, his eyes widening their scope as if they could spot her behind themselves.

_And I'll find you._

"But until then this is the only way to make things better." Tak slammed her hand painfully into the launch button.

The rush of air was like a gasp of breath that hollowed out Tak's chest and seemed to leave a gaping hole in her.

She watched his star until it disappeared and then she watched the others, wondering how many of them were dead.


	7. Rehabilitation

"**Sing me to sleep**

**Sing me to sleep**

**I don't want to wake up on my own anymore.**

**Sing to me **

**Sing to me**

**I don't want to wake up on my own anymore.**

**Don't feel bad for me**

**I want you to know**

**Deep in the cell of my heart I really want to go."**

**-asleep by The Smiths**

**"Never was there a tale of more woe then that of Juilet and her Romeo, huh? Well I sure as shit tried."**

**-me**

Epilogue

Rehabilitation

It had been three years. Dib wasn't sure from day to day what to think or say. What to feel. She had left him here with these scars with these awful memories. With this perpetual taste in his mouth like salt water, and an insatiable addiction for a drug that no human could replicate, she had left him. But of all the terrible things she had done, she had left him alive. And for that he hated her most.

His hope was as fragile as the lights in the cityscape. He walked the darkened streets with no muse and no hope; he found life as meaningless as he did mundane. He was lonely and the roads seemed to project his mental state onto tangible reality. He pulled his long coat close around him. It was a chilly night and lightening was already tattooing the sky. It would rain soon and that was ideal to Dib. Only then would his plan come to fruition.

He moved faster. He could see the towering lights of the grand hotel in downtown Central Square. It was beautiful this time of year; its colors whirled to him like ash in a firestorm. Brilliant, but he knew as he got closer and closer the more fatal it's attraction. Its lights were like a runway leading him to his final destination. A few raindrops pelted the asphalt; a few graced his lips, landed in his hair.

He had never honestly contemplated suicide. Not seriously. There were a few times he would hold a razor to his wrist or a gun to his temple but it was all just fanciful thinking. Tak had promised to come back for him, she swore in a language more personal then touch. He had to stay alive just in case, because of course today could be the day she finally decided to honor her promise, to prove the words.

_I love you. _

But he was done fooling himself. Perhaps every other day he had put down the gun, replaced the razor to his shoe, but not tonight. He had to come to terms with the truth he had been wrestling, she was never coming back. She had tricked him and he had fallen for it. The words he had spoken in echo of hers brought embarrassment beyond reckoning.

_I love you._

"AHHHHH!" Dib began sprinting at full force, his feet hitting the pavement at a joint busting speed.

_You're lucky to be alive kid._

The hospital had smelled like plastic and nitrous and looked like lightening bugs exploding. So many cameras had greeted his from deep space arrival that the orderlies nearly had to beat them off with clubs. What a story he was, Membranes son found in an alien craft beaten and bloodied with no explanation to give. They had shot him full of morphine and general anesthetic, fixed his jaw, sold his information to the papers, and doctored him into a coma. When he finally awoke six months later with terrible muscle dystrophy and even worse tabloid articles, he spent three weeks of his planned six months in therapy.

"You're lucky to be alive kid."

As he wobbled out from the rehabilitation center to check out for the last time Dib was told this by the facility's' receptionist. Dib looked around himself at the swarm of paraplegics, drug abusers, and people insane with PTSD and flashbulb memories. Women beaten so badly they had a master in helplessness, and seeing himself as a cocktail with equal parts of all these people told the receptionist to kindly fuck himself.

Dib pushed his way through the revolving doors of the hotel, running past the confused people in the lobby.

"Hello Mr. Membrane…is there…."

"Nothing just get out of my way."

He ignored the following cries and continued running all the way to the elevator. Once inside he breathed a deep shuddering sigh. He was safe now, phase two initiated as he pushed the suite button sliding his conformation card to ensure a computer he was well off.

He looked out of the glass elevator and admired the height of what he was ascending. The other buildings were beginning to look like things he could use as toothpicks. The red mahogany doors swung open with a ding, letting him exit to his exclusive floor.

He swiped his card for a second time. This room was more then lavish, it was sinful. Some people lived in boxes on the streets and here he was with his down comforters and overstuffed pillows. His fifteen dollar miniature bottles of grey goose in his miniature fridge. None of it mattered anymore. It was only the balcony he needed. You see in hotels like these suicides were anticipated, no window opened higher then a few inches. The only way to the roof required a little bit of forethought and planning.

He sat on its edge, looked for the fire escape ladder, and when he found it, climbed to the roof.

Up there he felt invincible standing in the gusts of wind, his jacket completely off his body, sailing behind him like a kite. He had to steady his glasses on his nose for fear that they would float away. He stared down at the network of lights below him, listened to the rush of traffic, felt the fall of rain as it increased, and tasted powerful exhilaration as it rose to the surface in laughter.

He spun around arms spread wide to give himself balance as he laughed, the sound of a volcano erupting. When he couldn't stand anymore he let the gut-wrenching power of his vocal ejaculations overtake him. This is what freedom felt like, a kite whose string had been cut, a bubble that had been popped and not for the first time in his life did he feel small, but for the last.

He looked up at the stars and wondered how many of them were dead and if one of the dead happened to be God, that burst of light him burning out like a flashbulb memory. How many of God's memories? Dib had never thought about what God wanted to forget.

_Now_, he thought. _Now or never._

He ran to the highest antennae on the building, peeling back the circuit breaker; he haphazardly began to tear at the wires laid bare there. He collected a handful of them all twitching with live electrical impulses. He gained a strong grip to keep them from whipping about wildly. He raised them to the back of his head. He would shove them directly into the socket there. He would go out like a raped fuse. He wanted to cum sparks from every pore, to shoot off like a dead star, to feel something after so many years of unrelenting nothing.

"I'm sorry Tak, but I can't wait anymore."

His hand shot up then lowered. His fingers fidgeted on the coils he held. His breathing was close to heaves and his eyes filled up with tears. he had mustered up the resolve to finish himself when he heard it,

"DIB DON'T."

That voice.

Euphoric. Elusive. Hers.

"Tak?" No he was hearing things. Better get on with it before she became another voice in his head. He raised the wires again.

"STOP IT GODDAMN YOU!" then there was something he couldn't write off as a hallucination.

Tak tackled him full force, knocking the snapping wires and the breath right out from him.

It was her, "Tak?"

She didn't answer instead she jumped on him. Straddling his waist the way she had so many years ago. Her lips exploded a different sort of supernova against his, and in an instant he was alive again.

There was no talking. Verbalization would have totally spoiled the moment. There was nothing to say that couldn't be communicated through touch and it seemed for hours they just lay there in the steadily building rainfall until it became unbearable for Tak.

Finally Dib said, "we have to get inside."

Tak nodded, "of course."

* * *

Barely keeping their footing they stumbled into the elevator. Dib mashed Tak up against the glass walls, pinning her with his groin, and mouth. Kissing her deeply and passionately enough to make his breath catch and her cheeks turn that lovely shade of lavender. Dib steadied her starting with the curve of her ass, and easing his way to her thighs cupped them in his hands, he urged her to wrap them around his waist.

"E-easy darling," he had gotten a little rough when biting her neck so he soothed the hurt with kisses. This was comforting but completely unapologetic.

Dib dropped to his knees, pulling down her stockings and kissing her exposed knees and inner thighs made his way to her core. He was delighted to discover that she wasn't wearing panties.

He tried his best, but he was impatient and so was she. There was no time for foreplay for two people who had been deprived of each other for so long. And to top it all off, Dib was hopelessly inexperienced.

Tak gathered him back up to her mouth and unbuckled his jeans while they were lip locked. Apparently Dib was as kinky as Tak and was likewise underwear free. She slipped her hand down into them to retrieve his member, gently situating it upright for stroking.

Dib's head came to rest on Taks shoulder where he practiced breathing in intervals and administering hickeys. His hands wandered down back where his mouth had been and he did the only thing he knew she liked.

Taks eyes glazed and she increased her speed on dib. Within minutes the two were moaning so loudly it might as well have been screaming. Consequently Tak exploded cum down Dib's fingers where it pooled into his hand, which he withdrew. He took a moment to undress from his coat and shirt. This interrupted his own stimulation, halting his climax.

"It's hot," he said stupidly.

"Not yet." Tak winked.

Dib liked her coy smiled and returned it with a crooked one. His member was so hard it was painful.

He moved back to her and like anything else it was falling into someone. A bit overzealous Dib slipped into her, but Tak was wet enough that the pain was well buffered.

The mirth and elation were nearly too much for poor Dib. Determined not to let their official first time be ruined by his inexperience he held statue still for a cool minute, while Tak licked and nibbled his earlobe. This sent huge pulsing waves of heat up and down his spine. When he felt ready to begin he drew slowly and jerkily in and out of her. But eventually his movements became deliberate and harder.

Tak hated the feeling of her ass ramming into the metal elevator bar. She implored, "Dib could we please move to the floor?"

Wordlessly he scooped Tak up in his arms and transported her to the carpeted floor, where he wrapped his arms around her and moved faster then he ever had in his life. All this he did without ever breaking penetration.

Tak clasped the back of Dib's head as her legs tightened their grip about his waist. He felt wonderful sliding in and out of her, their bodies making slapping sounds as their lovemaking intensified.

Dib to try and smother his own noises wrapped his mouth around Taks' sensitive antennae, a move she deeply appreciated.

"Oh, darling." Her back arched involuntarily as her body tightened and formed to fit the intrusion of her partner.

It was so warm and tight Dib lost it. Being completely unaware of the proper about to cum etiquette, Dib surprised Tak when he released inside her. He was gasping and tears were running out of his eyes, completely helpless to the feelings that were consuming him.

When he was finally done he rested his head down next to Tak's, "I'm so sorry." He was deeply ashamed of what had just transpired between them, and Tak knew why.

"It's okay darling, really you'll get better at this. We both will. We have lots of time to practice."

"How about right now?"

Taks' face was mischievous, "how about we get to the hotel room this time?"

* * *

Hours later Dib lay breathless on his pillow," wow." He turned over onto his side to face his lover, "thanks."

"For what?" Taks' composure was returning, but she was also a bit winded.

"For giving me a second chance."

Dibs' monotone is what made her question, "a second chance at what?"

There was quiet, "at everything."

His somberness nearly broke Taks' Irken heart. She leaned over to her lover and planted a very small but amorous kiss on his mouth, "ditto."

Dib yawned, "I'm exhausted. I really should get some sleep."

"Then why don't you?"

"I…I'm a bit scared."

"Of what? The monsters under the bed?" Tak teased the boy tickling him with her words.

"No there aren't any I checked." Tak knew that had to be true. "I'm afraid…that when I wake up…you won't be here."

Her blood felt corrosive. She was warm all over. The guilt seemed bigger then her body. A separate entity sapping her will to live, a parasite of the mind. A tumor.

"I'll be here Dib. I promise."

Dib curled up close to her, as close as he could manage without collapsing himself down into a negative of what he was. He wished he could bury himself in between her collarbones and live in the honeyed hollow of her throat. He wanted her to breathe him out matured and complete. He would never again be this whole in his life that he knew as fact.

"Sing me a lullaby."

"I don't know any."

"Then sing me our song."

"I don't know it." Tak looked disappointed with herself and her eyes were sorrowful.

"Here I'll start it. Hand in glove the sunshine's out of our behinds…"

Tak laughed at this a soft sound, more like a single shuddering exhale.

"No it's not like any other love. This one is different because…." Dib mouth filled with yawn and he was unable to sing out the rest.

But Tak heard it now, in Dib's voice. The song radiating out from his head like his thoughts were attached to a loudspeaker. She saw the words in her like an internal projector. "it's ours. Hand in glove, we can go wherever we please. And everything depends upon how near you stand to me. And if the people stare then the people stare…" she finished the lyric confusing Dib.

"I thought you didn't know the words?"

"I guess I lied…" she smiled and then continued on with the song until Dib was dead asleep. Curled up against her like a small child. His innocence rushed back into him.

* * *

He woke up a few hours later feeling unusually cold. He reached his hand out to the other side of the bed as far as it could reach and found himself to be alone.

His fingers curled as he flinched, shooting upright so fast his head spun. He clicked on the tableside lamp in a frenzy to find her. His heart raced manically as the room was illuminated, but she was no where to be seen. He jumped from the bed completely naked but uncaring, "Tak." He all but shrieked. He could not fathom loosing her again.

"I'm here." her voice came to him from the balcony. She moved through the curtains of it unveiled as if from a cocoon. She was naked also and so beautifully green she might have been made of jade.

He ran to her hugging her close, she smelled like pine needles, "God I'm paranoid."

She fit nicely under the point of his chin, "I have something to show you now. Something that will erase your fear."

Tak left him briefly walking back out to the balcony. When she returned she was carrying a black bag. She smiled at Dib before overturning it. Out with a thud something fell heavily from its belly. Dib had to hop a few inches to avoid it hitting his toes. It was round and pulpy. Dib dropped to his knees to retrieve it. Bringing it to his eyes he saw that it too had similar orbs in its skull. It was a head. Dib startled, dropping the horror back to the floor, but not before taking note of the green skin and the purple eyes.

He looked at Tak aghast, "what did you do?" The inflection of his voice rising to an unnecessarily high octave.

"I killed him. Purple."

Dib didn't understand. He hadn't run into Red's counterpart during his attack. He was unaware of what this all meant to him and Tak. Tak decided to clarify for him.

"The tallest are both dead."

Dib blinked.

"What this means is that Irk was without leadership, and in order to make sure those morons didn't tear each other apart some sort of structure needed to be established." Tak looked up at Dib making sure he was paying attention.

Dib blinked.

"I know you don't know this but, superiority is determined by height on Irk. The 'Tallest' Irken is normally 'elected' to power. It was then in that time of uncertainty, when Purple was still trying to maintain shaky rule, when I was still trying to make my way to you without drawing suspicion, that it came to me. I am undeniably the tallest Irken on the planet. I thought, all I would have to do is get rid of that idiot and all my troubles would be forgotten."

"What are you saying?" it was all starting to sink in.

"That I killed him."

"That's obvious," Dib motioned to the disembodied head. "And now?"

Tak smiled at the floor before meeting Dib's stare, "guess who's the new tallest?"

* * *

**Boy howdy that was a long ASS story. I'm so proud of me for finishing it though, and I thank all those who suffered along with me. **

**Though vespertine is over, I've decided to start a series of oneshots about Dib and Taks' life on the massive and the challenges they face. Stay tuned for old rivals, scary siblings, explosive orgasms, immortality talks, demons from beyond, and red red revenge. **


End file.
